Chapter 1: Clinical Sociology and Its Application to Analysis of Unaccompanied Children - Yvonne Vissing, Sofia Leitão, and Jan Marie Fritz
Chapter 2: A World Society Analysis of the Rights of Unaccompanied Minors - Brian Gran
Chapter 3: International State Responsibility Obligations to Protect and Provide Access to Justice for the Asylum-Seeking Child: The CRC and the Unaccompanied Minor Border Case Study Using Dahrendorf’s Social Conflict Theory to Proffer a Revised Legal Framework: Australia, Bangladesh/Myanmar to the ASEAN Charter States, the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire, Africa, and USA/Mexico - Tanya Herring
Chapter 4: Refugees and Migrant Children in Europe - José Noronha Rodrigues
Chapter 5: Unaccompanied Foreign Minors and Asylum Seekers Under Italian Law: The Issue of Minors Attaining Majority - Alessandra Cordiano
Chapter 6: Unaccompanied Minors Seeking Asylum in Denmark: Best Interest, Crime Prevention or Immigration Policy? - Caroline Adolphsen
Chapter 7: The Right to Education of Unaccompanied Minors and the Persistence of an Education Gap in their Transition to Adulthood - Isolde Quadranti
Chapter 8: Voluntary Guardianship for Unaccompanied Children in Italy: Strengths and Weaknesses of a New Model - Joëlle Long
Chapter 9: Detention of Unaccompanied Migrant Children in Portugal: A Call for a Clinical Sociology Intervention - Ana Rita Gil
Chapter 10: Unaccompanied Children at the US: Mexico Border - Yvonne Vissing
Chapter 11: Hope for Refugees: Challenges in Reception and Integration of Unaccompanied Venezuelan Children in Brazil - Maria Mariana Soares de Moura
Chapter 12: Ageing Out of Care Towards Living a Self-determined Life: A Multidisciplinary Mentoring Model for Unaccompanied Care Leavers - Anca Clivet
Chapter 13: Conclusion - Yvonne Vissing and Sofia Leitão
Yvonne Vissing, PhD, is a sociologist, founding director of the Center for Childhood & Youth Studies and tenured full Professor of Healthcare Studies at Salem State University, Massachusetts, USA. She has worked in the area of child and youth advocacy for her entire career. She is the author of 7 books and many chapters, professional journal articles and other publications. She has worked as a teacher, researcher, consultant, therapist, award-willing film maker, mediator, guardian-ad-litem, and helps organizations to decrease child abuse and improve child well-being. She is a National Institute of Mental Health Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Whiting Foundation Fellow, was appointed by the Governor to be on the New Hampshire Juvenile Parole Board, is on the board of the National Coalition for the Homeless, works with different child rights groups in the United States, teaches free classes for the National Alliance for Mental Illness, and works with both domestic and international groups.
Sofia Leitão, Ph.D., is a Sociologist and the Director of the Research & Development Division at “Hope For Children” CRC (Convention on the Rights of the Child) Policy Center. Over the last decade she has directed the implementation of numerous programmes in the field of the Rights of the Child co-funded by the Rights, Equality & Citizenship programme of the European Commission. She is the author of a book on media discourses and childhood constructions.
This volume explores the various challenges faced by migrant unaccompanied children, using a clinical sociological approach and a global perspective. It applies a human rights and comparative framework to examine the reception of unaccompanied children in European, North American, South American, Asian and African countries. Some of the important issues the volume discusses are: access of displaced unaccompanied children to justice across borders and juridical contexts; voluntary guardianship for unaccompanied children; the diverse but complementary needs of unaccompanied children in care, which if left unaddressed can have serious implications on their social integration in the host societies; and the detention of migrant children as analyzed against the most recent European and international human rights law standards. This is a one-of-a-kind volume bringing together perspectives from child rights policy chairs across the world on a global issue. The contributions reflect the authors’ diverse cultural contexts and academic and professional backgrounds, and hence, this volume synthesizes theory with practice through rich firsthand experiences, along with theoretical discussions. It is addressed not only to academics and professionals working on and with migrant children, but also to a wider, discerning public interested in a better understanding of the rights of unaccompanied children.