M.A. University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Humanities (Forced Migration Studies), 2012 / Background: This research investigates the psychosocial needs of cross-border unaccompanied minors (UAMs) within urban Johannesburg, a city that attracts nearly half of all the cross-border migrant population in South Africa (Landau and Gindrey, 2008). The focus of the research is dual; firstly, it explores what the prime psychosocial needs of UAMs are by eliciting them from the UAMs themselves via participatory research workshops. South Africa, by law, has an obligation to all UAMs to provide for them. By ascertaining these needs, this study reveals discrepancies between existing psychosocial programmes designed and provided by the government or service providers and the needs of the UAM. Secondly, the research examines how UAMs are trying to satisfy their psychosocial needs. Identifying the psychosocial needs of UAMs and their coping mechanisms gives us a better understanding of the nature of the issues UAMs face, as well as their subjective perception of and priority they place on those issues. This can consequently contribute (a) to providing constructive suggestions on designing psychosocial programmes by governmental, nongovernmental organisations (NGOs), and non-profit organisations (NPOs) and (b) valuable input to further research on livelihood-seeking UAMs, a group that is currently under-represented in cross-border UAM studies, unlike asylum seeking or refugee UAMs. Aims: The aim of this study is to understand the psychosocial needs of UAMs and how they are meeting those needs in Johannesburg. This will provide insights on the nature of the psychosocial needs of UAMs that will ultimately be helpful both to government agencies as well as NGOs and NPOs responsible for programme planning, legislation, and execution of policies regarding cross-border UAMs. Finally, the study aims to draw attention to livelihood-seeking UAMs and to encourage further research on this particular group of UAMs. Therefore my research question is: what are the psychosocial needs of cross-border UAMs in Johannesburg? Methods: In this study, a qualitative research approach is used with the aim of uncovering the psychosocial needs of cross-border UAMs. This was done by using participatory action research and a visual methodology. The data was elicited via two participatory workshops, the first with 36 cross-border minors participants and the second with 12 cross-border UAM participants. This was followed by a series of group discussions after the workshops. Afterwards, a comparison between the participants’ visual inputs with their narratives and responses allowed me to extrapolate their psychosocial needs and ways in which they meet those needs. Adding to the study, 11 semi-structured interviews were conducted with service providers from various organisations, both non-governmental and governmental. Finally, the data was compiled from both the cross-border UAM s and service providers to answer the research question and objectives. Conclusion: This research identifies and discusses the following psychosocial needs of crossborder UAMs: family, a care-giver, documentation, fitting-in with their South African peers, security, schooling, better life quality (economic and social advancement), counselling, and playing. The four themes in bold text represent psychosocial needs, which continue to be unmet or unfulfilled by service providers current responses. Although the basic (ontological) needs of cross-border UAMs seem to be met (i.e., food, housing, clothing), psychosocial needs - those needed for emotional well-being - are undermined because service providers do not see them as fundamental as basic needs. One conclusion from my study is that NGOs can better cater to UAMs’ psychosocial needs due to their flexible infrastructure that can accommodate personalisation and prompt redesigning of programmes offered, in contradistinction to the recalcitrant governmental infrastructure. Currently service providers, such as governmental departments, NGOs and NPOs use the law (such as the Children’s Act (2008)), regulations or psychosocial programmes to aid cross-border UAMs, but these laws and programmes are manufactured for either homogenous groups or very specific groups such as refugees and asylum seekers. However, there are persisting gaps in the services available. These gaps are due to the varied nature of psychosocial needs that each ‘child’ has to meet, which is also contingent on their own background and personality. Under the Children’s Act (2008), minors are categorised as a homogeneous group and therefore individual needs are overlooked. Organisations both governmental and non-governmental have tried to incorporate child friendly practices, although in most of the interviews it was mentioned that policy, such as the Children’s Act (2008), is not necessarily ‘child’ or ‘family’ friendly. Overall this research indicates that NGOs and NPOs are well-equipped to cater to the psychosocial needs of UAMs, such as school, family reunification and basic needs. Certain psychosocial needs, however, such as ‘fitting-in’, are still unmet. In these cases, UAMs resort to catering to their own needs (lke living on the street in selfappointed families), relying on service providers for emotional support and/or basic needs.

Swedish parliament in a bid to curb the large numbers of unaccompanied minors who are denied asylum status – came up with a law which is famously known as Gymnasielagen. The aim of the study was to explore how professionals in upper secondary schools setting and social services perceive the implementation of this law and how it contributes to integration of unaccompanied minors in Sweden concerning school environment.  Through semi structured interviews, professionals in contact with unaccompanied minors (UAMs) expressed their perception on the Gymnasielagen and its impacts on the lives of UAMs. The advantages and disadvantages of the law together with its contribution to integration of UAMs were investigated.  The results showed that the law renewed hope for UAMs and gave them the chance to start life afresh after the long wait for asylum. There were however significant discrepancies in the law that makes it difficult for UAMs. The condition to get permanent employment after school completion does not seem achievable and puts pressure on them. They are forced to choose courses from a limited number of technical courses that would possibly get them permanent employment.  Integration was also found not to be optimum because of uncertainty among the UAMs.

Denna kvalitativa studie syftar till att genom kritisk diskursanalys analysera Socialstyrelsens handbok för arbetet med ensamkommande asylsökande barn och unga. Analysen syftar till att kartlägga hur ensamkommande asylsökande barn framställs och kategoriseras i diskursen. Studien avser även att undersöka om det råder strukturella missförhållanden när det gäller samhällets insatser för dessa barn och om dessa missförhållanden synliggörs i diskursen. I studien har jag använt mig av Faircloughs tredimensionella modell för kritisk diskursanalys, både som teori och metod samt teorier om socialkonstuktivism, makt, normer, identitet och stigmatisering. Resultaten visar att diskursen skapar identiteter och kategoriserar individer i grupper genom det valda språkbruket. Vidare uppfattas diskursen stundtals som otydlig då argumenten är inkonsekventa och motsägelsefulla. Slutligen visar resultaten på att det förekommer ett missförhållande i maktbalansen mellan myndigheterna och barnen. / This qualitative study aims to, using critical discourse analysis, to analyze The National Board of Health and Welfares manual about work with unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and young people. The analysis aims to map how unaccompanied asylum-seeking children are presented and categorized in the discourse. The study also intends to investigate, within the framework of the discourse, whether there is structural anomaly between society and these children. In the study, I have used Fairclough's three-dimensional model of critical discourse analysis, both as theory and method and used theories of social constructivism, power, norms, identity and stigmatization. The result shows that the discourse creates identities and categorizes individuals into groups through the chosen language use. Furthermore, the discourse is sometimes perceived as unclear as the arguments are inconsistent and contradictory. Finally, the results show that there is an incongruity in the balance of power between the authorities and the children.

Unaccompanied minors who are fleeing and being sent way from their countries of origin are nothing new. In 2011, 12 225 unaccompanied minors where registered in The European Union, none undocumented minors included. Most of the minors are coming from Afghanistan and Somalia. The aim of this essay is to investigate how The European Union’s migration policies are applied in reality and how United Nation’s Convention on the Right of Children are put in practice by the member states of The European Union and Norway. This will be investigated through a qualitative literature essay. The results of this essay illustrate that unaccompanied minors are being subjects of The European migration policies like Dublin II regulation, and are being held in detention around in Europe. The unaccompanied minors’ fundamental rights are taken from them, rights like education, health care and social welfare. The unaccompanied minors are not seen as children by the authorities; instead they are seen and treated as refugees and illegal migrants. / Barn i Barnhus

abstract: Immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers. Three words describing the same group of people. Individuals seeking a better, safer life. Western media is focused right now, in 2016, on the humanitarian crisis from the Middle East to the European Union; just like two years ago it was centered on the huge numbers of unaccompanied minors immigrating into the United States from Central America. Media changes its focus but problems do not end with a change of headlines. Unaccompanied minors are the most vulnerable population looking for asylum. This study looks at two different immigration flows of unaccompanied minors: one from the Middle East going to the European Union; and the other one from Central America to the United States. This research finds similarities and differences between these two flows of migrant children related to the reasons why they leave their countries of origin, their experiences during the trip to the destination countries, the asylum process, the legal status of these children and how these minors are perceived by societies in the destination countries. Using a human rights law framework, this thesis will explore the continuum of violations of human rights that these children endure on their journey from their origin countries to their destination states. Through interviews with former and current direct providers of unaccompanied minors seeking asylum, previous scholarly work, documentaries and news articles on the subject, it will make clear that these two flows of children fleeing to different destinations have much more in common than what may be initially perceived. This emergent, exploratory and inductive qualitative research will bring light to asylum law and question why the social responsibility to protect children seems to skip the most vulnerable ones: unaccompanied minors seeking asylum. / Dissertation/Thesis / Documents to be included in addendum / Masters Thesis Social Justice and Human Rights 2016

The topic of migration has become one that is gaining notice in society. With the number of migrants, asylum seekers, unaccompanied minors and child refugees rising rapidly in the past few years it has become a theme of great importance with global reach. These migratory fluxes blur the boundaries between voluntary and forced migration which were previously regarded as separate notions. The media plays a powerful role when it comes to define such concepts as well as creating representations of these populations and shaping the public perception of these individuals. Through this thesis, the representations of unaccompanied asylum seeking minors and refugees constructed by the Portuguese media will be analysed using discourse analysis. The aim is to create knowledge about the representations of unaccompanied asylum seeking minors and refugees in the Portuguese media as this means of communication is an important voice in the public and political debate concerning these populations. The results show that there are several dichotomies regarding the representations of unaccompanied asylum seeking minors and refugees in the Portuguese media. Young migrants are represented both as security seekers and causes of insecurity, victims and survivors, passive agents which lack agency and active agents who use their agency to leave their home countries, as well as people worth supporting and people who had enough support. Discourse analysis provides information regarding the discourses used in the Portuguese media to represent unaccompanied asylum seeking minors and refugees as well as the context in which the articles were written. Finally, there are several representations of unaccompanied asylum seeking minors and refugees in the Portuguese media, yet the ones whose discourse is stronger, in the five chosen articles, are the of young migrants as security seekers, victims that are worth being supported and that are mostly active agents in their journeys.

The purpose of our study is to investigate young unaccompanied childrens’ experiencesof integration and their coping strategies used to deal with integration challenges in thenew country. The study also draws attention to professionals' experiences of difficulties and opportunities of integration work with unaccompanied children and young people.  We applied a knowledge overview, that comprised a phenomenological analysis, based  on thirteen articles that were examined on the basis of a criteria template. The results  were analyzed with Folkman and Lazarus coping theory and Bronfenbrenners developmental ecology theory.Comprehensively, our results show that unaccompanied children and young people dodesire to establish contacts with the majority population but experience difficulties due to segregation, cultural barriers, prejudice and racism in school. Furthermore,  supportive relationships with housing staff and professionals, and mainly peers from the  same ethnic group, seem to play a significant role in their well-being and integration process. They also show high motivation and determination to learn the new languageand to educate themselves, which they emphasize is the key to successful integration inthe new country. The results indicate however, that mental illness, few opportunities for language training and organizational barriers in school are barriers to achieveintegration. Comparing the past with one's current life situation and seeking distractions,particularly by spending time with friends and engaging in meaningful activities, are  key coping strategies that unaccompanied minors use to deal with difficulties in life.  Further, religion as a coping strategy played a significant role in their well-being andability to cope with problems.

Cette thèse propose d'étudier une catégorie d'intervention des politiques migratoires : les mineurs non accompagnés. À rebours d'une vaste littérature qui traite les mineurs non accompagnés en tant que groupe – posant des questions concernant leurs trajectoires migratoires, leur résilience plutôt que leur vulnérabilité, ou l'efficacité des politiques censées les protéger –, cette thèse s'inscrit dans une approche constructiviste et interroge les processus par lesquels la catégorie « mineurs non accompagnés » est donnée à voir. Nous analysons la conception de la catégorie juridico-administrative dans les politiques européennes ; les processus de transnationalisation dont elle fait l'objet, et les pratiques d'identification et de surveillance par lesquelles elles est mise en œuvre. La thèse couvre une période de vingt ans et investit trois terrains d'enquête. Tout d'abord, les forums et les arènes européens à Bruxelles, où se dégagent les représentations compassionnelles, et les logiques sur lesquels reposent les concurrences entre acteurs de la protection de l'enfance, des migrations et de la sécurité pour la définition légitime de la catégorie mineurs non accompagnés. Au delà des frontières européennes, l'Égypte est signalée par les acteurs transnationaux comme un « pays d'origine » de mineurs non accompagnés. Le troisième terrain a été mené à une frontière de l'Union européenne. Il prend en compte le cas de Catane (dans l'est de la Sicile) où sont données à voir les opérations d'individuation des mineurs non accompagnés arrivant par mer par les agents sécuritaires et humanitaires des migrations / In this dissertation, we study the career of a target category within migration policies, i.e. unaccompanied minors. Scholars have mostly dealt with unaccompanied minors as an existing group, asking, among others, what their migration trajectories are, whether they are resilient or vulnerable, and the efficiency of protection policies targeting them. Adopting a constructivist approach, this dissertation asks instead: what are the processes through which the category “unaccompanied minors” is actually incorporated into public policy and made visible? Here, its conception as a legal category within European policies is analyzed, along with its transnationalisation, and implementation. This study covers a period of twenty years. It rests on a three-fold fieldwork. Firstly, European forums and political arenas in Brussels are considered, where competition among child protection, migration and security actors can be observed. Secondly, beyond European borders, we consider Egypt as a country that is pointed at by transnational actors as a sending country for unaccompanied underaged migrants. Thirdly, the European Union border is taken into account by studying the operations of individualisation – by securitarian and humanitarian agents – of unaccompanied minors arriving by boat, along with disciplining practices implemented by migrant social care officers in Catania (Eastern Sicily). Finally, resistance practices to/through the category unaccompanied minors are studied here

Denna studie undersöker vardagslitteracitet hos ensamkommande unga asylsökandesom studerar på allmänkurs vid en folkhögskola. Deras studier bedrivs på grundskoleochgymnasienivå. Samtliga av de unga är asylsökande med tillfälligt uppehållstillståndvillkorat av deltagande i studier på gymnasienivå.Studiens teoretiska ram tar sin utgångspunkt i en sociokulturell förståelse avlitteracitet utifrån New Literacy Studies samt hur litteracitet formas av diskurser.Dessa teorier sätts i relation till Gees och Wedins forskning kring flerspråkighet ochidentitetsförhandling. Analysen bygger på narrativ som beskriver de sju deltagarnasvardagslitteracitet utifrån insamlade foton och semistrukturerade fotoretrospektivaintervjuer.I studien delges hur deltagarnas vardagslitteracitet formas av omständigheter somkontext, språk, artefakter och arenor. De erfarenheter som framträder i narrativenskildras som fem teman: vardagsrutinernas praktiker, praktiker kringmyndighetskontakter och samhällsengagemang, mediepraktiker, praktiker kringrelationer och personlig kommunikation och lärande praktiker. Olika diskurservillkorar och möjliggör deltagarnas litteracitet. Dessa diskurser kan knytas tilldeltagarnas egen bakgrund, till kamrater, till skolans sammanhang och till detomgivande samhället.Studiens bidrag till forskningsområdet består bland annat i uppmärksammandet av deungas kompetenta förhållningssätt till sin vardagslitteracitet. Folkhögskolan som enmöjlig framgångsrik kontext för språk och litteracitetsutveckling lyfts fram iundersökningens resultat liksom att övergripande samhälleliga normer påverkar synenpå andraspråksinlärares kompetenser och erfarenheter. Av resultaten framträder enbild av den undervisning som deltagarna tar del av som normativt enspråkig, vilketosynliggör deltagarnas språkkompetens och begränsar deras möjligheter att bidra medegna och tidigare erfarenheter. I motsats till detta framstår vardagen utanför skolansom sammanhang där deras litteracitetsförvärvande möter vidare språkligautmaningar. Det är även främst utanför undervisningen, på skolan och i detomgivande samhället, som deltag arnas identitetsförhandling ar ochlitteracitetsutveckling äger rum i mötet med andra och nya diskurser. Dessa resultatuppmärksammar betydelsen av att erfarenheter utanför undervisningen värdesätts ochges utrymme i klassrummet. Resultaten bidrar med ny kunskap till forskningsfältetoch yrkesverksamma inom skolan beträffande den avgörande betydelse ettflerspråkigt perspektiv och flerspråkiga normer kan ha för deltagarnas utveckling. / This study examines everyday experiences of literacy described by unaccompaniedminors who are now following a general program of studies at a college of furthereducation (folkhögskola). Their studies are conducted at a secondary and uppersecondary school level. All of the participants are subject to the Swedish legislationapplying to residence permission and participation in upper secondary education.The underlying theories of this studie comes from literacy as embedded in socialcontexts from New Literacy Studies and as formed by discourses. These theoriesrelates to Gee’s and Wedin’s research about multilinguality and negotiation of identity.From a narrative approach the analysis presents the seven participants everydayexperiences of literacy from collected photographs and semistructured photoretrospective interviews.The studies contribution to the research area consists, among other things, in drawingattention to the young peoples competent approach to their everyday literacy.Folkhögskola as a possible successful context for language and literacy developmentis highlighted as well as how overall societal norms affect the view of secondlanguage learners skills and experiences. The results show a learning environmentnormed by the national Swedish language. These norms limits the participantsopportunities to contribute with experiences from their past. This is in sharp contrastto literacy in their everyday life outside of the classroom. Which circumstances appearmore open and demanding for language learning and acquisition of literacy andenables negotiating of identities. Literacy evolve outside the classroom in relation tovarious new discourses. This stress the importance of including experience fromoutside of the learning environment. The results also contribute with knowledge forprofessionals and to the research area concerning the crucial importance of amultilingual perspective and what significance multilingual norms can have forparticipants development.

The ability of media to create powerful images, which shape how readers understand certain issues, is very important, especially when linked to questions regarding the attitude towards the Other. This study focuses on a problem which has not been sufficiently addressed by researchers so far – how unaccompanied minors from Afghanistan are constructed in Swedish media. Using Norman Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis in combination with postcolonial theory, eight news pieces were selected from two of Sweden’s leading newspapers; Aftonbladet and Expressen, in order to provide a deeper understanding of the discourses underpinning these constructions. Thus, this paper finds that the media coverage of the group is often negative and conflict-centered, framing the unaccompanied minors as either suspected liars or criminals which further contributes to the polarization between “Us” and “Them” in the Swedish society. Framing unaccompanied minors in this way, Aftonbladet and Expressen can contribute to the (re)production of stereotypes, affect public opinion and influence political decision and action regarding the group.