OUP accepted manuscript

Refugee Survey Quarterly , 2022

Refugee children are often neither recognised as rights holders nor as active agents in asylum procedures. A one-sided view of these children as vulnerable objects is not in coherence with international children's rights, including the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which regards all children as autonomous subjects and full bearers of rights. Through 21 in-depth interviews with unaccompanied, separated, and accompanied children in the Netherlands, their perceptions and experiences are collected and analysed in relation to their right to be informed and to participate in asylum application proceedings. It is shown that children possess little information on the asylum application interview, which they perceive as particularly stressful. However, they display agency in the choices they make during the interview. Accompanied children find themselves in a rather difficult position, feeling jointly responsible for the outcome of the procedure. It is concluded that effective and meaningful participation, in line with the international children's rights framework, is difficult to realise in the context of asylum proceedings.

Area, 2010

Drawing on research undertaken with separated children seeking asylum in the UK, this paper explores the ways in which children's political identities and experiences have been conceptualised in procedures for determining who is – and is not – in need of protection under international refugee law. The paper focuses in particular on the experiences of separated children during the asylum interview. It is suggested that the conduct of the interview not only indicates a basic lack of humanity and care in engaging with the experiences of separated asylum-seeking children, but also a particular conceptualisation of ‘childhood’ that undermines the ability of children to fully articulate their experiences and to secure access to the protection to which they are entitled. The consequence of this approach is not only that separated asylum-seeking children are significantly less likely than adults to be granted refugee status, but that children who express political views and agency may not be considered to be children at all.

International Journal of Children's Rights, 2020

Refugee children often find themselves in a vulnerable position; they have experienced trauma and mental health problems and in the host country they are involved in a complex and adult-oriented asylum application procedure. International and Euro- pean legal standards urge states to adapt migration procedures to the age and maturity of children and to make these more child-friendly. In this article, the core concept of analysis is the child’s right to information. It will be shown that this right is closely con- nected to other children’s rights and concepts, such as access to justice, child-friendly justice and the right to participation. The implementation in practice of the right to information in the asylum procedure in the Netherlands will serve as a case study, to show the precarious information position of both unaccompanied as well as accompa- nied refugee children. The results of this study show that the information position of these children can be improved, which will benefit their legal position, emotional well- being and possibilities to exercise their rights.

Interpreting, 2010

This article is a study of how the participation status of asylum-seeking children is interactively constructed in interpreter-mediated asylum hearings. We have undertaken a discourse analysis of 50 non-repair side-sequences from 26 hearings with Russian-speaking, asylum-seeking children in Sweden. A sidesequence is here defined as a monolingual sequence conducted in only one of the languages involved in the interviews. It involves the interpreter and only one of the primary interlocutors. In this article, four extracts are chosen for a microanalysis in order to elucidate how interpreters can challenge asylum-seeking children's participant statuses. We show that the right of the child to make his or her voice heard can be challenged, especially when the interpreters exclude, distort, discredit and guide the voices of the children, which is often done with the tacit approval of caseworkers.

Like Any Other Child? Children and Families in the Asylum Process, 2008

This report from Barnardo's is about one of the UK’s most marginalised groups – asylum-seeking and refugee children and families. In dealing with their parents’ asylum claims, the needs of the children as children have largely been ignored. One asylum-seeking mother asked why her disabled child couldn’t be treated like any other child, which provided the report's title. The report includes 10 first hand accounts from families with children seeking asylum in the UK. All the interviewees were users of services provided by Barnardo's - Believe in Children.

UCU Working Paper Series, 2019

Refugee and migrant children comprise one of the most vulnerable groups in the context of world-wide migration flows. The vulnerability and precarious situation of refugee and migrant children calls for a strong legal position in asylum procedures. Effective participation in asylum procedures -based on child-friendly and age-appropriate communication and adapted procedures -can strengthen the legal position of refugee and migrant children and contribute to the perceived fairness of complex procedures and outcomes. In this paper, through critical analysis of legal instruments, a nuanced understanding of the meaning of the right to participation for refugee and migrant children will be sought. This right will be conceptualised from a children's rights perspective, with the aim of investigating its meaning for this specific group of children. Moreover, the meaning and scope of participation will be studied in relation to other children's rights and principles. It will be shown these rights and principles, such as the right to participation, the right to information, access to justice, childfriendly justice and the best interests of the child principle are closely connected in relation to the involvement of children in asylum procedures.

Child <html_ent glyph="@amp;" ascii="&amp;"/> Family Social Work, 2003

Children

The 21st century phenomenon of “global displacement” is particularly concerning when it comes to children. Childhood is a critical period of accelerated growth and development. These processes can be negatively affected by the many stressors to which refugee and asylum-seeking children are subjected. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is the most ratified human rights treaty in history, with 196 States Parties (SPs). The CRC provides a framework of 54 articles outlining government responsibilities to ensure the protection, promotion, and fulfillment of rights of all children within their jurisdictions. Among these are the rights of refugee and asylum-seeking children, declared under Article 22 of the CRC. Refugee and asylum-seeking children, similarly to all other children, are entitled to their rights under the CRC and do not forgo any right by virtue of moving between borders. The hosting governments, as SPs to the CRC, are the primary duty bearers to f...

The rights and experiences of unaccompanied asylum seeking children living in indus- trialised nations are rarely seen from the perspectives of children themselves. This paper takes a narrative based approach to report on the lives 29 unaccompanied asy- lum seeking young people in the uk. The research from which this paper emerges explored the ways in which they thought the rights of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) were or were not being realised on their behalf. It highlights the significance of making the promises that are held within the uncrc into viable strategies of protection for unaccompanied asylum seeking children as they search for a new place to belong to and a new place that belongs in them. Keywords: unaccompanied asylum seeking children; united nations convention on the rights of the child; asylum decision making; phenomenology of waiting; belonging; police; home office; private foster care; exploitation.

Children & Society, 2022

This article sheds light on the waiting period experienced by asylum-seeking children in Austria. We argue that this period can be defined as a ‘phase of liminality’ in which ‘precarity’ of asylum seekers is produced. The article analyses how children experience institutional settings that produce precarity in relation to their well-being. The aim is to contribute to a sound understanding of children's experiences while waiting for an asylum decision and to a child-centred perspective on children that focuses on their needs, wishes and agency. The article draws on 27 interviews with asylum-seeking children living in a basic services accommodation in Vienna, conducted in 2020 and 2021. The findings demonstrate the importance of listening to asylum-seeking children to support their well-being during this phase of liminality and implementing child-centred asylum policies that are responsive to children's well-being.