Fostering a new approach : how alternative care models in Greece are meeting unaccompanied minors' rights : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of International Development at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
Loading...
Date
2019
DOI
Open Access Location
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Massey University
Rights
The Author
Abstract
Unaccompanied minors seeking refuge in Greece are met with woefully inadequate
care structures for meeting their needs. Despite the United Nation’s Convention on
the Rights of the Child [CRC] stipulating children’s entitlement to appropriate care
arrangements, there is a gap between this rhetoric and the reality of alternative care
provision for minor refugees. Significantly, institutions are prioritised over familybased
solutions. There is also a lack of research addressing the processes of power
and exclusion in refugee hosting countries, and how these structural conditions
influence unaccompanied minors’ situations and their wellbeing. To address these
issues, this study adopts a socio-political construction of children’s rights to
understand both how different care models are meeting unaccompanied minors rights,
and why these models were selected.
In conceiving rights as a socio-political process, this thesis addresses issues of power
and agency in the navigation of rights. Tensions between restrictive migration policy
and commitment to the CRC will be shown to compromise care provision for
unaccompanied minors through conscription to control over care. Despite the
overarching structural limitations, young people in this study find avenues for
exercising their agency, albeit often risky ones. What emerges is a need to understand
both young people’s vulnerabilities and strength, and how they are both these things
in different parts of their lives.
This thesis presents results of fieldwork largely undertaken in Athens over a six-week
period in 2018. A cross-section of care providers engaged in the welfare of
unaccompanied minors participated in the study. Also interviewed were the foremost
experts in Greece’s child protection system: young people who themselves have
experienced these care models. Findings reveal the impact migration policy has had in
undermining care provision for unaccompanied minors, and the corresponding
tensions that emerge for NGOs looking to address urgent needs and find sustainable
solutions. This study recorded that rights violations and risks are occurring. It also
explored the barriers and opportunities to expand the spectrum of care options and
strengthen optimal care, which were identified as family and community-based
alternative care initiatives.
Description
Keywords
Refugee children, Care, Greece, Emigration and immigration, Government policy, Convention on the Rights of the Child|d(1989 November 20)