CD-52247
Unaccompanied Migrant Children: Social, Legal, and Ethical Perspectives.
Haker, Hille.
Greening, Molly.
Book
xvi, 245 p.
Copyright
Published: 2019
Lexington Books
D. C. Heath and Company
125 Spring St.
Lexington, MA 02173
Tel: (800) 235-3565
This book counters many of the myths around migration, asylum, and refuge, and offers insights from professionals who work with and for migrant children in Central America, the United States, and Europe. Following an introduction, Part 1 offers insights into the personal experiences of unaccompanied minor children, told from the first-person perceptive as well as from the perspective of social workers from several countries. The chapters look at the ways unaccompanied migrant children experience their life as border crossers, how they are accompanied in the transition, and how they should be accompanied if their developmental needs were considered. Part 2 focuses on the human rights of children in the international rights framework, confronting it with particular case studies from the United States and Sweden. Chapters highlight the legal complexities, showing how laws that are purported to protect minors may actually violate their basic human and legal rights. Part 3 explores a Catholic social ethics of child migration, centered on unaccompanied migrant children. Chapters given an account of unaccompanied migrant children as vulnerable agents and offer an original interpretation of the Christian trope of the Holy Family. The concluding chapter examines the recent shift in United States and European migration, asylum, and refugee policies toward a particular nationalist populism that threatens not only the human rights of millions of people but also defies the global human rights regime. A political ethics of child migration is urged that embraces a cosmopolitan framework of human rights and prioritizes human dignity and the human rights of children. The Christian notion of hospitality to strangers is emphasized. Numerous references.
Keywords:
unaccompanied children; undocumented immigrants; human rights; childrens rights; ethics; child welfare services; refugees; cross cultural studies