Citizens of Nowhere? Paradoxes of State Parental Responsibility for Unaccompanied Migrant Children in the United Kingdom

Francesca Meloni*, Rachel Humphris

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

5 Citations (Scopus)
37 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Social workers are confronted with a contradictory task: that of acting as state parents for unaccompanied asylum seeking children, in an era of hostile migration policies and austerity. Mobilizing Young’s (2006) concept of ‘responsibility’ we ask: how is state parental responsibility towards unaccompanied minors given meaning, and with what consequences, for both frontline workers and unaccompanied minors alike? Drawing on interviews with frontline workers and unaccompanied minors in the UK (n = 107), we delineate three modes through which responsibility operates: namely outcomes, capacity and morality. We argue that the underlying logic of responsibility shifts the blame from sociopolitical structures to migrant children themselves, with crucial consequences for questions of social justice.
Original languageEnglish
Article numberfez037
Pages (from-to)3245–3263
Number of pages19
JournalJournal of Refugee Studies
Volume34
Issue number3
Early online date18 May 2019
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Sept 2021

Keywords

  • Unaccompanied minors
  • children
  • migration
  • responsibility
  • duty of care
  • policy
  • social workers

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