Unaccompanied Refugee Minors – Life Histories of Being a Refugee, Interactions and Resilience in Multiple Contexts

• In Event: Roundtable Session (Wednesday IV)
  In Refereed Round-Table Session: Migration and education: life stories in motion

Proposal

The presentation is based on an interview study with fifteen unaccompanied minors in Sweden, 15 to 17 years old and born in Afghanistan. Using a life-history approach the study explores how the children make sense of, understand and cope with experiences of being a refugee in multiple contexts. From being internally displaced persons in Afghanistan, and semi-legal residents of Iran, via a long and arduous flight over the Western Balkans to becoming and being refugees in Sweden. Upon arrival to Sweden, a number of institutions are assigned to help children navigate in the everyday life, such as legal guardian, social services, public defender (arguing for their asylum case), teachers, and staff in housing shelters. A particular focus of presentation will be on the interactions, as experienced by the children, occurring in the context of asymmetric power relations with institutional actors. We explore how children understand their interactions with primarily two agencies, social services and legal guardians. These agencies, which we label as formally protecting contexts, are among the most important caring for children’s reception, welfare, and everyday life. Positive interactions with formally protecting contexts, perceived by the children as the contexts’ genuine care and commitment to support them, promote the establishment of trust in institutions and their representatives. Trust in its turn is an essential tool for overcoming traumatic experiences and regaining the sense of “living an ordinary life”. In situations where negative interactions seem to undermine their interests, the children appear to function as strong actors with an ability to negotiate spaces of influence. However, using opposition frequently as a means of bringing about changes can actually lead to diminishing resilience and enhancing vulnerability.

Author

• Nihad Bunar, Stockholm University