Review Article | | Peer-Reviewed

The Global Phenomenon of Migration and Its Predicament for Unaccompanied and Separated Minors

Received: 12 October 2024     Accepted: 6 November 2024     Published: 30 December 2024
Views:       Downloads:
Abstract

Migration as a global phenomenon is characterized by the voluntary and involuntary movement of people from their countries worldwide. People voluntarily and involuntarily leave their countries for various reasons. Those migrants who leave their countries of origin become vulnerable during their journey to the country of destination and during their stay in the host country. The most vulnerable segment of migrants is unaccompanied and separated minors. Unaccompanied and separated minors flee from their countries of origin without the support of their parents due to persecution, international conflicts, civil wars, forced recruitment as child soldiers, harmful cultural practices, natural disasters, severe poverty, trafficking in various forms and contexts, including being sold by parents and the search for better economic opportunities. They face risk factors regarding gender status, health, education, and social welfare. The rights and protection of unaccompanied and separated minors are enforced through international legal instruments. They can be enhanced by initiating practical interventions, including improving coordination and communication among various stakeholders rendering services to unaccompanied and separated minors, strengthening a multi-disciplinary approach, and capacity building of personnel working in the field of unaccompanied and separated migrant minors. Essential to achieving realizing the desired outcome in changing the plight of unaccompanied and separated minors is to facilitate fundamental change in the mindsets of authorities and officials towards foreigners and the development of relevant competency skills and knowledge.

Published in Humanities and Social Sciences (Volume 12, Issue 6)
DOI 10.11648/j.hss.20241206.21
Page(s) 265-275
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Migration, Unaccompanied and Separated Minor, Vulnerability, International Legal Instruments, Migration Journey, Host Country

References
[1] Granados, S. A. R. (2019). Difficulties in identifying unaccompanied refugee children in mixed migration flows: The case of Mexico and Central America.
[2] Schreier, T. (2011). Critical Challenges to Protecting Unaccompanied and Separated Foreign Children in the Western Cape: Canada's Journal on Refugees, 28(2): 61-76.
[3] United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). 2022. Immunization.
[4] European Parliament. 2021. Vulnerability of unaccompanied and separated child migrants.
[5] Wong, G. et al. 2013. RAMESS publication standards: Meta-narrative reviews. BCM Medicine, 11, 20
[6] Saur-Amaral, I. 2011. Towards a Methodology for Literature Reviews in Social Sciences. Research and Intervention in Human Resource.
[7] Braun, V. Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2): 77-101
[8] Castelli, F. (2018). Drivers of migration: why do people move? Journal of Travel Medicine, 25(1): 1-7.
[9] Dustmann, C. & Okatenko, A. (2014). Outright-migration, well constraints, and the quality of local amenities. Journal of Development Economics, 110, 52-63.
[10] Hofman, M. et al. (2020). International Migration: Drivers, Factors and Megatrends. A Geographical Outlook. International Center for Migration Policy Development.
[11] Held, D. et al. (2000). Global Transformation: Policies, Economics and Culture: Politics at the Edge. Palgrave Macmillan: London, UK, (pp 14-28).
[12] United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) Population Division. (2019. Trends in International Migrant Stock: The 2019 revision (United Nations database, POP/DB/MIG/Stock/(Rev, 2017).
[13] International Labor Organization (ILO). 1977. International Labor Organization Convention 182 on the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor. ILO. Geneva, Switzerland.
[14] Maioli, S. C. et al. (2021). Migrant unaccompanied minors. Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, 5(12): 882-895.
[15] Committee on the Rights of the Child. 2005. General Comment No6. Treatment of Unaccompanied and Separated Children Outside Their Country-of-Origin CRC/GC/2005/6.
[16] United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). 2011. Handbook and guidelines on procedures and criteria for determining refugee status under the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol Related to the Status of Refugees.
[17] Achilli, L. et al. (2017). Protection challenges for unaccompanied and separated children in Jordan, Lebanon, and Greece: Migration Policy Centre.
[18] United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). (2020a). Invisible visible: The identification of unaccompanied and separated girls in Bulgaria, Greece, Italy and Serbia.
[19] Cossor, E. (2016). Young and youth on the move: Children and youth in mixed migration flows within and from the Horn of Africa. Regional Mixed Migration Secretariat. Save the Children.
[20] Carlson, B. E. et al. (2012). A risk and resilient perspective on unaccompanied refugee minors. Social Work, 57(3): 259-269.
[21] Menjivar, C. & Perreira, K. M. 2019. Undocumented and unaccompanied: Children of migration in the European Union and the United States. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 45(2): 197-219
[22] Parish, A. (2017). Gender-based violence against women: both cause for migration and risk along the journey. Migration Policy Institute. Assessed on 20 January 2024
[23] United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). (2018). Global Report on Trafficking in Persons, Vienna.
[24] International Labour Office, United nations Children’s Fund & United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking (ILO, UNICEF & UNGIFT). 2009. Training manual to fight trafficking in children for labour, sexual and other forms of exploitation: Understanding child trafficking.
[25] Schloenhardt, A. & Lelliott, J. 2018. Migrant Children and the United Nations Protocols against Smuggling of Migrants and Trafficking in Persons. In Crock, M. & Benson, L. (eds). Protecting Migrant Children: In Search of Best Practice. Elgar.
[26] Vaghri, Z. et al. 2019. Refugee and Asylum-Seeking Children: Interrupted Child Development and Unfulfilled Child Rights. Children, 6(120): 1-6
[27] Druny, J. Williams, R. (2012). Children and young people who are refugees, internally displaced persons or survivors of perpetrators of war, mass violence and terrorism. Current Opinion in Psychiatry, 25(4): 277-284.
[28] Skudoor, J. 2015. Trauma and children: A refugee perspective. Children Australia, 40: 188-194
[29] Kronick, R. et al. (2017). Refugee children’s sandplay narratives in immigration detention in Canada. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 27(43): 423-437.
[30] Shonkoff, J. P. (2012). Leveraging the biology of adversity to address the roots of disparities in health and development. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 109(2): 17302-17307.
[31] Williams, T. et al. (2018). "It isn't that we're prostitutes” Child protection and sexual exploitation of adolescent girls within and beyond refugee camps in Rwanda.
[32] Thompson, R. 2019. Child Maltreatment and Risky Sexual Behaviour: Indirect Effects Through Trauma Symptoms and Substance Abuse. Child Maltreatment, 22(1): 69-78
[33] Zwi, K. et al. (2018). The impact of detention on the social-emotional well-being of children seeking asylum: a comparison with community-based children. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 27(4): 411-422
[34] Antony, M. G. & Thomas, R. J. (2017). "Stop sending your kids across our border." Discursively constructing the unaccompanied youth migrant. Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, 10(1): 4-24.
[35] Lelliott, J. (2017). Smuggled and Trafficked Unaccompanied Minors: Towards a Coherent, Protection-Based Approach in International Law. International Journal of Refugee Law, 29(2): 238-269.
[36] Jovanovic, K. & Besedic, J. (2020). Struggling to survive. Unaccompanied and Separated Children Travelling in Balkans route. Save the Children. Last accessed on 2 February 2024. Available from
[37] Meloni, F. (2019). The Ambivalence of Belonging: The Impact of Illegality on the Social Belonging of Undocumented Youth. Anthropological Quarterly, 92(2): 451-479.
[38] Aleghfeli, Y. K. & Hunt, L. (2022). Education of unaccompanied refugee minors in high-income countries: Risks and resilience factor. Education Research Review.
[39] World Health Organization (WHO). (2018). Report on the health of refugees and migrants in the WHO European Region: No public health without refugees and migrant health.
[40] Beier, J. et al. 2022. Four Strategies to Improve Community Services for Unaccompanied Children in the United States. Migration Policy Institute.
[41] Koehler, C. & Schneider, J. 2019. Young refugees in education: the particular challenges of school systems in Europe. Comparative Migration Studies, 7(28): 1-20
[42] Fazel, M. et al. (2012). Mental health of displaced and refugee children resettled in high-income countries: Risk and protective factors. Lancent, 379(9812): 266-282.
[43] Bonin, H. (2017). Education of migrants. "A social investment "European expert network on economics of education (EENEE policy brief 3/2017). Assessed on 5 February 2024
[44] Crul, M. (2017). Refugee children in education in Europe. How to prevent a lost generation? (SIRIUS network policy brief series, issue no 7. Retrieved from
[45] Gamez-Luma, A. & Romo, H. 2019. Unaccompanied Minors: Marginalized in the Education System. Journal of Undergraduate Research & Scholarly Work.
[46] Crea, T. M. et al. (2016). Unaccompanied migrant children in the United States: Predictions of placement stability in long-term foster care. Children and Youth Services Review, 73(C): 93-99
[47] Cordoso, J. B. (2018). Running to stand still. Trauma symptoms, coping strategies, and substance abuse behaviors in unaccompanied migrant youth. Children and Youth Services Review, 92, 143-152.
[48] Koehler, C. 2018. Multicountry partnership to enhance the education of refugee and asylum-seeking youth in Europe -PERAE (Comparative Report) SIRIUS Policy Network on Migrant Education, Brussels. Retrieved from
[49] Elikaksoy, A. & Wadensjo, E. 2017. ‘Refugee Youth in Sweden. Who arrived as Unaccompanied Minors and Separated Children. Nordic Journal of Refugees Studies, 9(2): 179-200.
[50] Aflaki, I. N. & Freise, M. (2019). Challenging the Welfare System and Forcing Policy Innovation? Unaccompanied Asylum-seeking Children in Sweden and Germany. Journal of Refugee Studies, 34(1): 264-284.
[51] Ambrose-Miller, W. & Ashcroft, R. (2016). Challenges faced by social workers as members of the inter-professional collaborative health care team. Health and Social Work, 41(2): 101-109.
[52] Asha, A. & Nkwana, M. (2021). Complexities in the Case Management of Unaccompanied Minors: Perceptions of Social Workers Practicing in the Polokwane Child and Youth Care Centre. AHMR African Human Mobility Review, 7(2): 6-19.
[53] United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). (2020b) An unsettled past, an uncertain future. Pilot Study: Children on the Move using Southern Route in Eastern and Southern Africa.
[54] BRIDGE. 2016. Gender Update: Gender and migration: Issue number: 114 available on
[55] United Nations Population Fund, United Nations High Commission for Refugees & Women’s Refugees Commission (2016). Initial Assessment Report: Protection risks for women and girls in the European refugee and migrant crises in Greece and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. New York.
[56] United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. 2016. Global Report on Trafficking in Persons. Viena, United nations. Available on
[57] Yonkova, Nusha et al. 2017. Protecting victims: An analysis of the anti-trafficking directive from the perspective of a victim of Gender-Based Violence Report.
[58] Convention on the Rights of the Child. 2005. General Comment No. 6: Treatment of Unaccompanied and Separated Children Outside their Country of Origin, 39th Session, UN Doc CRC/GC/2005/6,7/2005.
[59] Beier, J. & Fredericks, K. (2023). A Path to Meeting the Medical and Mental Health Needs of Unaccompanied Children in US Communities: American Academy of Pediatrics.
[60] International Organization for Migration. 2016. IML Information Note on the protection of unaccompanied migrant children. International Migration Law Unit.
[61] Inter-agency Guiding Principles on Unaccompanied and Separated Children. 2004. ICRC, IRC, Save the Children, UNICEF, UNHCR, World Vision.
[62] Committee on the Rights of the Child. (2005). General Comment No 6. Treatment of Unaccompanied and Separated Children Outside Their Country-of-Origin CRC/GC/2005/6.
[63] Bradbury-Jones, C. (2013). Refocusing Child Protection Supervision: An Innovative Approach to Supporting Practitioners. Child Care in Practice, 19(3): 253-266
[64] Mahmoudi, A. & Mothapo, T. T. (2018). Reception of children on the move in South Africa, Paris: Kids Empowerment.
[65] Westwood, J. L. (2012). Constructing risk and avoiding needs: Findings from the interviews with social workers and police officers involved in safeguarding work with migrant children. Child Abuse Review, 21(5): 349-361.
Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Bambeni, N. (2024). The Global Phenomenon of Migration and Its Predicament for Unaccompanied and Separated Minors. Humanities and Social Sciences, 12(6), 265-275. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hss.20241206.21

    Copy | Download

    ACS Style

    Bambeni, N. The Global Phenomenon of Migration and Its Predicament for Unaccompanied and Separated Minors. Humanit. Soc. Sci. 2024, 12(6), 265-275. doi: 10.11648/j.hss.20241206.21

    Copy | Download

    AMA Style

    Bambeni N. The Global Phenomenon of Migration and Its Predicament for Unaccompanied and Separated Minors. Humanit Soc Sci. 2024;12(6):265-275. doi: 10.11648/j.hss.20241206.21

    Copy | Download

  • @article{10.11648/j.hss.20241206.21,
      author = {Ntobeko Bambeni},
      title = {The Global Phenomenon of Migration and Its Predicament for Unaccompanied and Separated Minors
    },
      journal = {Humanities and Social Sciences},
      volume = {12},
      number = {6},
      pages = {265-275},
      doi = {10.11648/j.hss.20241206.21},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hss.20241206.21},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.hss.20241206.21},
      abstract = {Migration as a global phenomenon is characterized by the voluntary and involuntary movement of people from their countries worldwide. People voluntarily and involuntarily leave their countries for various reasons. Those migrants who leave their countries of origin become vulnerable during their journey to the country of destination and during their stay in the host country. The most vulnerable segment of migrants is unaccompanied and separated minors. Unaccompanied and separated minors flee from their countries of origin without the support of their parents due to persecution, international conflicts, civil wars, forced recruitment as child soldiers, harmful cultural practices, natural disasters, severe poverty, trafficking in various forms and contexts, including being sold by parents and the search for better economic opportunities. They face risk factors regarding gender status, health, education, and social welfare. The rights and protection of unaccompanied and separated minors are enforced through international legal instruments. They can be enhanced by initiating practical interventions, including improving coordination and communication among various stakeholders rendering services to unaccompanied and separated minors, strengthening a multi-disciplinary approach, and capacity building of personnel working in the field of unaccompanied and separated migrant minors. Essential to achieving realizing the desired outcome in changing the plight of unaccompanied and separated minors is to facilitate fundamental change in the mindsets of authorities and officials towards foreigners and the development of relevant competency skills and knowledge.
    },
     year = {2024}
    }
    

    Copy | Download

  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - The Global Phenomenon of Migration and Its Predicament for Unaccompanied and Separated Minors
    
    AU  - Ntobeko Bambeni
    Y1  - 2024/12/30
    PY  - 2024
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hss.20241206.21
    DO  - 10.11648/j.hss.20241206.21
    T2  - Humanities and Social Sciences
    JF  - Humanities and Social Sciences
    JO  - Humanities and Social Sciences
    SP  - 265
    EP  - 275
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2330-8184
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hss.20241206.21
    AB  - Migration as a global phenomenon is characterized by the voluntary and involuntary movement of people from their countries worldwide. People voluntarily and involuntarily leave their countries for various reasons. Those migrants who leave their countries of origin become vulnerable during their journey to the country of destination and during their stay in the host country. The most vulnerable segment of migrants is unaccompanied and separated minors. Unaccompanied and separated minors flee from their countries of origin without the support of their parents due to persecution, international conflicts, civil wars, forced recruitment as child soldiers, harmful cultural practices, natural disasters, severe poverty, trafficking in various forms and contexts, including being sold by parents and the search for better economic opportunities. They face risk factors regarding gender status, health, education, and social welfare. The rights and protection of unaccompanied and separated minors are enforced through international legal instruments. They can be enhanced by initiating practical interventions, including improving coordination and communication among various stakeholders rendering services to unaccompanied and separated minors, strengthening a multi-disciplinary approach, and capacity building of personnel working in the field of unaccompanied and separated migrant minors. Essential to achieving realizing the desired outcome in changing the plight of unaccompanied and separated minors is to facilitate fundamental change in the mindsets of authorities and officials towards foreigners and the development of relevant competency skills and knowledge.
    
    VL  - 12
    IS  - 6
    ER  - 

    Copy | Download

Author Information
  • Sections