Unaccompanied and Separated Children in Canada: Issues of Resettlement, Classifications of Risk

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Unaccompanied and Separated Children in Canada
Issues of Resettlement, Classifications of Risk

• Myriam Denov, PhD
• McGill University
• Catherine Bryan, MSW
• Dalhousie University
• Michéal Montgomery
• International Institute for Child Rights and
  Development
• Simon Atem
• Unaccompanied Minor
• Youth Researcher

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Todays Presentation

• Introduction to the issue of Unaccompanied and
  Separated Children in Canada
• Overview of Research Project
• Highlight the resettlement goals and expectations
  of unaccompanied and separated children
• Explore the lived-experiences of unaccompanied
  and separated children as described by the youth
  themselves and those who work most closely with
  them
• Classifications of Risk
• Discuss ramifications of these experiences
• Offer policy-focused suggestions

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Introduction to the issue of Unaccompanied and
Separated ChildrenWho are Unaccompanied/Separate
d Children? Definitions

• Children and Youth
• The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
  defines a child as every human being below the
  age of 18.
• The UN defines a youth as a person between the
  ages 15 and 24.

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Children and YouthLimitations of Definitions

• Highly variable
• Dependent on socio-cultural environment
• Many young people who arrive to Canada may not
  know precise age
• Engagement in adult roles - caregiving,
  providing for younger siblings

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Definitions

• Unaccompanied and Separated Children
• The UNHCR defines a separated children as a
  person under the age of 18, unless under the law
  applicable to the child majority is attained
  earlier, and who is separated from both parents
  and is not being cared for by an adult who by law
  or custom is responsible to do so.
• Citizenship and Immigration Canada defines an
  unaccompanied child as an individual, under the
  age of 18 who is without both parents or adult
  who is legally responsible for them.

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Unaccompanied or Separated?Practical Concerns
and Implications

• In Canada, these terms are often used differently
  and interchangeably by various institutions
• Affecting
• Available data
• The identification of children at borders and by
  agencies
• Provision of services

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Why do Children seek asylum?

• Children become mobile for many of the same
  reasons as adults
• Persecution on the basis of ethnicity, religion,
  nationality, membership in a particular social
  group, political affiliation
• Reasons unique to their status as children and
  youth
• Separation from family
• Persecution on the basis of age
• Child abuse
• Gender-based persecution
• Forced conscription
• Trafficking and smuggling

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Canadian DemographicsBetween 2000 and 2004
(based on CIC data)Of the approximately 18
million refugees worldwide, 2-5 are
unaccompanied and separated children

• Unaccompanied Children
• 1, 087
• Mean age of 15.2 years
• 39.1 female
• Majority from Sri Lanka, China and Burundi

• Separated Children
• 1, 683
• Mean age 15.3
• 50.7 female
• Majority from Sri Lanka, Somalia and Colombia

For both groups of children 52 were either 16
or 17, 30 were between 11 and 15, and 18 were
between 0 and 10
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Understanding the Canadian Demographics

• Between 1993 and 2003, the number of
  unaccompanied and separated children entering
  Canada quadrupled (Bhabha, 2003)
• Why the increase in Unaccompanied and Separated
  Children?
• The changing nature of warfare
• Perceived by families to be less likely to be
  detected by immigration controls.
• Improved accessibility of travel and childrens
  rights discourse has meant that a small but
  emergent number of children may be choosing to
  seek out new opportunities elsewhere.
• Anchor or bullet children, sent ahead to
  secure immigration routes for families.

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Applicable Policy

• UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989)
• Article 22(1), 22(2) Asylum and Family
  Reunification
• Article 37 Relating to Detention
• UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees
  (1989)
• Relating to the principle of Unity of the Family
• UNHCR Guidelines on Dealing with Unaccompanied
  Children Seeking Asylum (1997)
• Child Refugee Claimants Procedural and
  Evidentiary Issues (IRB 1996)
• Best Interest of the Child

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Overview of Research Project

• Impetus for the Research
• The lived realities of unaccompanied children in
  Canada
• Pilot project
• Funded by IDRC and McGill
• Objectives
• To examine the short and long-term resettlement
  experiences of unaccompanied/separated children
  in Canada, as well as the psychosocial challenges
  they face following their arrival.
• To contribute to the development/improvement of
  policy and programs oriented towards the
  protection and integration of unaccompanied/separa
  ted children in Canada

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Study Sample 24 Participants (to date)

• 7 Unaccompanied and Separated Children
• (5 male and 2 female)
• Youth were from Sudan, Ethiopia, Afghanistan,
  Kenya and Congo.

• 17 Stakeholders
• 6 British Columbia
• 7 Quebec
• 1 Manitoba
• 1 Ontario
• 2 US

• How did these youth get to Canada?
• Unaccompanied
• World University Services Canada
• Government Assisted

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Method

• Qualitative interviews with small sample of
  stakeholders and youth intended to elicit thick
  description and depth
• Interview protocol developed by research team,
  which included a separated refugee youth

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What does resettlement mean for unaccompanied and
separated refugee youth?

• All the youth interviewed stated that education
  was their principle goal. This, according to
  stakeholder participants, reflected the
  sentiments of the majority of the youth they had
  worked with.
• The best thing about living in Canada is, you
  know, education (Male Youth, BC)
• Security the ability to feel safe, to feel
  protected, to feel free to pursue a variety of
  interests, pass times, and options.
• What I really admire here is that people have
  quiet time for themselves, people read, not all
  the people but if they want it, they do it. Yeah,
  the freedom that is, money cannot buy it it
  is the only thing I have been able to gain
  without gaining conventional status. Just being
  here, by itself, automatically you get that
  freedom (Male Youth, AB)
• A profound need to be loved, understood and
  accepted
• Most of the cases are tragic because they all
  need to have a parent, whether they know it or
  not (Male Stakeholder, BC)

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Overarching Context

• Like other migrants, unaccompanied and separated
  children do not arrive to an ideologically
  neutral context.
• Child Welfare
• Immigration Control and Security (Shamir, 2005)
• Most people are products of Hollywood,
  product of the UN, a product of media and this
  is how they perceive us. I am here but they
  perceive me through TV, they perceive me through
  my passport and they perceive me through my
  accent (male youth participant, AB).

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Unpacking the Experiences of Unaccompanied and
Separated Children in Canada

• Although unaccompanied and separated children
  invoke some sympathy by virtue of their status as
  children, participants reported that many
  interactions and relationships were marked by
• 1. Anti-refugee discourse
• 2. Anti-youth discourse
• 3. Racism
• 4. Immigration discourse
• Each of these is influenced by the childs age
  and his or her gender.

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1. Anti-refugee DiscourseBullet Children and
Collusion

• Perceptions of refugees have tended to be
  constructed around issues of identity,
  trustworthiness, and concerns about the
  circumvention of legal methods of immigration.
• I think that refugee is just a bad
  wordTheres a societal image of the refugee who
  is just a cheater, who is just trying to jump the
  queue, who is just trying to take advantage of
  this wonderful country (female stakeholder).
• Their association with marginalized global
  populations.
• The potential influx of other refugees they
  represent.
• Their perceived ability to consent to flight.
• Their status as non-citizens and irregular
  migrants who have chosen to evade illicit means
  of immigration.

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Anti-refugee Discourse

• Conceived of as bullet children
• This perception presupposes a hidden agenda,
  labels the child as untrustworthy and
  de-legitimizes their claim for asylum.
• Serves to displace generalized anxiety concerning
  uncontrolled migration onto them
• Unaccompanied and separated children constructed
  as rational agents, and seen as having
  consented to flight.
• In some cases, the children do receive status.
  In some cases they dont because they
  immigration officials feel that the child is
  able to consent to being smuggled and so
  therefore, the child is not in need protection
  from Canada. They are not automatically accepted
  because they are children (female stakeholder).

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2. Anti-youth DiscourseThe Fear of Youth Crime

• The classification of youth as risk occurs
  within a socio-political context that
  increasingly conflates young age and delinquency.
• Refugee youth do not need to transgress the law
  to constructed as criminal.
• While all youth are vulnerable to this
  classification, refugee youth are particularly
  vulnerable.
• There have been a few instances in the city
  where refugee kids have done something and they
  deport them...Or they just say that the refugees
  are causing problems in the city. There was a
  shooting a while ago, oh its a refugee kid,
  oh they shouldnt be in our country. Thats how
  people respond, its easy to blame. So its not
  just a student, its a refugee student or its an
  aboriginal student. People class it and then
  society responds by saying oh all these people
  are bad, look at all the aboriginal gangs, look
  at all the African gangs (female stakeholder,
  MB).

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Anti-youth Discourse

• The notion that all refugee youth are potentially
  criminal is often fostered by the media, which by
  covering the crimes of ethnically and
  socio-economically marginalized youth,
  effectively established the archetypal youth
  criminal.
• The moment the police see you, if you look
  young, theyre like maybe youre a drug dealer or
  youre a bad person. Thats what they do here.
  Thats why it is not good here, the police
  make it bad. You know, all the young people they
  are bad but they dont know whos bad, they
  dont know whos good and theyre supposed to
  know (male youth participant, MB).
• This archetype provokes and justifies cynical and
  fearful reactions to refugee youth who may, or
  may not, be in conflict with the law.

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Anti-youth Discourse

• This has powerful ramifications for them as they
  attempt to integrate into their new communities.
• After I shared my life story with my teacher and
  then with my other classmates, thats when they
  started to know me. They came to me after and
  said, oh, we thought that you were a bad
  person. They felt that maybe I was going to rob
  them, like Im going to do something bad to them
  (male youth participant, MB)

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Risk and Gender

• My hunch is that girls are understood at far
  greater risk of exploitation and getting
  themselves in difficult situations, which are not
  their fault and that boys are understood as
  being risky to Canadian society as much as at
  risk. Whereas I dont think that girls are
  understood as being risky to Canadian society,
  they are more at risk. (female advocate
  stakeholder).

In many ways, female gender serves to mediate the
risk identity classification. This reflects
normative, Canadian gender ideology regarding
male and female children.
These dynamics play out in terms of placement and
detention.
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3. RacismStereotypes Discrimination

• In addition to anti-refugee and youth discourse,
  is the positioning of unaccompanied and separated
  children in opposition to normative Canadian
  citizenry.

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Racism and Difference

• For unaccompanied and separated children, markers
  of difference typically include age, ethnicity
  and language.
• There are people who say that I am too African.
  I dont know why they say that. How can I be too
  African? This is who I am, I cannot be someone
  else (female youth participant, QC).
• Youth are positioned as inherently unable to meet
  Canadian standards of hygiene, morality and
  intellect.
• There are others who keep me in a stereotype.
  One white guy greets another white guys hey! How
  are you, how are you doing, he turned to me
  Hey, wuz up? (laughing). I get that at a lot,
  people think I smoke weed and I would say 85 of
  people my age do smoke marijuana but I dont.
  Its not being holy or something, its just not
  me but they automatically - its not do you
  smoke, its when are we going to smoke? (male
  youth participant, AB).

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Racism and Difference

• Their inherent difference is further emphasized
  by the message unaccompanied and separated
  children often receive that conformity to
  mainstream standards of appearance and language
  will facilitate their integration.
• I had a judge, my hair is in dreadlocksand he
  literally commented on that. And a lot of people
  even before I appeared in court commented, you
  know what, you have to cut your hair because when
  you appear in court, people see appearance,
  things like thatbut he (the judge) was
  laughing at me, actually. He thought I was
  respectless (male youth participant).

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Immigration Control

• Examples of securitization in regards to
  unaccompanied and separated children
• Use of handcuffs
• Use of detention
• That was another shocking moment. I could say I
  expected, to be around be around police, I didnt
  expect any kindness in custody. I knew that
  when I came here, I was going to pass through
  this type of process. I knew that I was not
  legal They arrested me and chained me, took me
  to detention and they kept me there for 40 days,
  until I proved my ID, that I was really a
  juvenile (male youth participant).
• The use of handcuffs and detention are a clear
  breach of the UNCRC and other policies/treaties.

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Synthesis

• The four types of experiences discussed by the
  participants do not occur in isolation from one
  another.
• Rather they work in tandem, reinforcing each
  other.
• Prejudicial attitudes are legitimized
• Discrimination and Exclusion are Justified
• The binary
• child welfare/immigration control binary cedes to
  immigration control.
• The narratives of participants ultimately
  highlight the discrepancy between political
  rhetoric concerning childrens rights and
  everyday practice.

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Ramifications

• Ongoing Challenges
• Inability to access necessary supportive systems
• inconsistently applied across provinces
• Barriers to employment and housing
• Limited opportunities to be self-sufficient/or to
  be children
• Conflict in school with peers and teachers
• Conflict with police (both warranted and
  unwarranted)
• Integration and culture
• Isolation
• Low-self-esteem

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Ongoing Challenges

• As observed by both groups of participants,
  unaccompanied and separated children may resort
  to behaviours and activities that serve to
  confirm the identities conferred on them.
• HOWEVER, these youth also demonstrate a
  remarkable ability to overcome these challenges,
  meet their goals, and make positive connections.
  Their strength, motivation, and determination
  must be fostered throughout the process of
  resettlement and afterward.

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Overcoming These ChallengesPolicy-focused
Suggestions

• The conceptualization of unaccompanied and
  separated children as risky rationalizes the
  decision of host countries to respond to them
  suspiciously and deny them protection.
• The lack of coherent federal policies concerning
  the protection of unaccompanied and separated
  children represents a considerable challenge for
  immigration officials and front-line workers.
• Canadian policy must be developed that recognizes
  unaccompanied and separated childrens inherent
  right to protection.

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Policy-focused Suggestions

• Deconstruct previously held notions, not simply
  of unaccompanied and separated children, but of
  the markers and risk categories that facilitate
  the classification of these children and youth as
  risky
• Challenge gender ideologies and stereotypes which
  construct male refugee youth as innately
  self-reliant and female refugee youth as innately
  dependent.
• Recognize the impact of biological age,
  ethnicity, citizenship status, separation from
  family, gender and culture, while not assigning
  reductionist meaning to them.

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Policy-focused Suggestions

• Developing/improving programs and services that
  enable these youth to achieve their goals and
  maximize their potential
• Education
• Safety
• Support
• Given the relatively small numbers of
  unaccompanied and separated children that enter
  Canada, Canada is in a unique position to develop
  and implement a holistic system which recognizes
  the uniqueness of each youth, supports them in
  their endeavors, and facilitates the kind of life
  they, the youth themselves, expect to have here.