Research: Refugee children in Greece

Abstract

Background

Migrants’ journeys can be non-linear and directed towards abstract destinations, with endings better marked by periods of integration rather than arrival in any particular place. This study explores how male unaccompanied migrant children’s interactions with child protection staff in Greece shape their future trajectories as migrants.

Methods

The transcripts of in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 26 youth who were placed in accommodation facilities for unaccompanied minors in Greece were qualitatively analyzed using inductive coding. Attention was paid to how youths’ experiences with bureaucratic actors shaped their perceptions of Greece, and how those perceptions informed their future decisions as young adults.

Findings

When youth arrived in Greece, they were unprepared to interpret their new institutional environments. Their understanding of their environments was shaped largely by their interactions with individual non-governmental organization (NGO) staff members. Youth who believed that NGO staff were supportive and invested in their futures typically had plans to stay Greece. Youth who perceived staff to be unsupportive typically had intentions to leave Greece, even if it meant giving up their rights as asylees to be irregular migrants in another country.

Conclusion

Investment by NGO staff in unaccompanied children’s futures as young adults has important implications for the decisions youth make and their trajectories as migrants. When youth believe staff are indifferent to their best interests, they often disengage and continue their journey to another country as irregular migrants.

Abstract

Background

In settings of mass displacement, unaccompanied minors (UAMs) are recognized as a vulnerable group and consequently prioritized by relief efforts. This study examines how the interpretation of vulnerability by the national shelter system for male UAMs in Greece shapes their trajectories into adulthood.

Methods and findings

Between August 2018 and April 2019, key informant interviews were carried out with child protection staff from Greek non-governmental organizations that refer UAMs to specialized children’s shelters in Athens to understand how child protection workers interpret vulnerability. In-depth interviews and life history calendars were collected from 44 male migrant youths from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Iran who arrived in Greece as UAMs but had since transitioned into adulthood. Analysis of in-depth interviews and life history calendars examined how cumulative disadvantage and engagement with the shelter system altered youths’ trajectories into adulthood. Younger adolescents were perceived as more vulnerable and prioritized for shelters over those who were “almost 18” years old. However, a subset of youths who requested shelter at the age of 17 years had experienced prolonged journeys where they spent months or years living on their own in socially isolated environments that excluded them from experiences conducive to adolescent development. The shelter system for UAMs in Greece enabled youths to develop new skills and networks that facilitated integration into society, and transferred them into adult housing when they turned 18 years old so that they could continue developing new skills. Those who were not in shelters by age 18 years could not access adult housing and lost this opportunity. Limitations included possible underrepresentation of homeless youth as well as the inability to capture all nationalities of UAMs in Greece, though the 2 most common nationalities, Afghan and Pakistani, were included.

Conclusions

Due to the way vulnerability was interpreted by the shelter system for UAMs, youths who had the greatest need to learn new skills to facilitate their integration often had the least opportunity to do so. To avoid creating long-lasting disparities between UAMs who are placed in shelters and those who are not, pathways should be developed to allow young adult males to enter accommodation facilities and build skills and networks that facilitate integration. Furthermore, cumulative disadvantages should be taken into account while assessing UAMs’ vulnerability. 

 

 

 

In light of the routinized detention of asylum seekers and refugees in many countries, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees published a strategy to end the practice in 2014,1 emphasizing the ineffectiveness of detention as a deterrent to migration, and the fact that it contradicts international law. However, given the surge in migration into Europe in subsequent years, rates of immigration detention remain high. In 2017, there were 25,810 immigration detainees in Greece, 31,908 in the UK, and 46,800 in France.2, 3 In the US, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained 323,591 irregular immigrants in 2017,3 and a record high of 42,000 immigrants each day on average in 2018.

This quarter’s Digest includes the first systematic review of immigration detention’s mental health impact since 2009, by von Werthern and colleagues.5 Given the scarcity of data from immigration detention centers, the authors used an inclusive search strategy that did not restrict studies based on immigrants’ country of origin or country of detention, or their age. Included studies concerned detention facilities in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, Israel, Japan, and Switzerland...Read more