Childhood Without a Future? Unaccompanied Youth Migrants in Europe

May 2 2016 – Elaine Chase.

Large numbers of unaccompanied young migrants are seeking sanctuary in Europe. The plight of these migrants has been brought into focus by the conditions in Calais. The Guardian recently reported that over 150 unaccompanied children from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries are still stranded in Calais, and called on UK Home Office to provide safe passage to Britain to reunite them with their relatives. Things came to a head in the UK House of Lords last Tuesday, when the government narrowly defeated a cross-party motion to accept some 3000 child migrants from mainland Europe. In this week’s podcast, Elaine Chase, a Senior Lecturer in Education, Health and International Development at the University College London asks what it is like for many of these migrants to navigate adolescence without much ability to plan for the future.