Unaccompanied Young Migrants

Identity, care and justice

Exploring in depth the journeys migrant youth take through the UK legal and care systems, this book contributes new thinking, from a social justice perspective, on migration and human rights for policy, practice and future research.

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Taking a multi-disciplinary perspective, and one grounded in human rights, Unaccompanied young migrants explores in-depth the journeys migrant youths take through the UK legal and care systems.

Arriving with little agency, what becomes of these children as they grow and assume new roles and identities, only to risk losing legal protection as they reach eighteen?

Through international studies and crucially the voices of the young migrants themselves, the book examines the narratives they present and the frameworks of culture and legislation into which they are placed. It challenges existing policy and questions, from a social justice perspective, what the treatment of this group tells us about our systems and the cultural presuppositions on which they depend.

Sue Clayton has directed two films on child asylum: Hamedullah: The Road Home (2013) and Calais Children: A Case to Answer (2017), both have been submitted in asylum and High Court appeal cases. She is Professor of Film at Goldsmiths University of London and consultant producer for ITV and Channel 4 News.

Anna Gupta is a Professor of Social Work at Royal Holloway, University of London. Anna has undertaken research and published articles on a range of subjects linked to child care and protection practice. Her particular interests include work in the family courts, poverty and social work, and practice with Black and minority ethnic children and families.

Katie Willis is Professor of Human Geography at Royal Holloway, University of London. Her research focuses on migration, gender and development, with particular interests in transnational families and the role of migration in reproducing or challenging social inequality.

Author/Editor details at time of book publication.