Children of the crisis

Ethnographic perspectives on unaccompanied refugee youth in and en route to Europe

Bibliographic Data

ID7843464
AuthorsAnnika Lems, Kathrin Oester, Strasser (0000-0003-3741-4672)
Year2020
Volume46
Issue2
Pages315-335
Publication date2020-01-25
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueNew Community (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0047-9586 • E-ISSN: 1469-9451
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/1369183x.2019.1584697
OpenAlexW2924779765
LanguageEN
Citations received66
References cited64

This special issue explores the ways unaccompanied refugee youth in and en route to Europe actively deal with the intensification of exclusionary practices towards migrants and refugees. In the Introduction we aim to set the scene for the individual articles by sketching the various political, historical and discursive levels at which the unaccompanied minor has come to be constructed as a crisis figure in Europe. We show how the sense of exceptionality attached to this figure translates into ambiguous and at times extremely contradictory social practices that have far-reaching effects on the lives of refugee youth. In paying attention to the conceptual flaws and dangers inherent in linking unaccompanied minors to ideas of crisis, we aim to demonstrate the importance of taking seriously the ways young people themselves make sense of the ascriptions, ideas and practices they are subject to. We suggest that ethnographically driven research that lays the focus on the ways young people actively navigate the ambiguous social landscapes they are confronted with can form an important means to move beyond the simplistic and ahistorical models of explanation put forward by frameworks of crisis

Criminology · Ethnography · Focus (optics · Political science · Politics · Refugee · Refugee crisis · Set (abstract data type · Sociology · Subject (documents · Anthropology · Education and experiences of immigrants and refugees · Gender Studies · Law · Migration, Health and Trauma · Migration, Refugees, and Integration

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Open DOISci-HubOpen Access