Unaccompanied child migration, propelled by war, political strife and instability is an increasingly serious global problem. Refugee youth contends with numerous challenges as they adjust to living in a new country. Although their capacity for resilience is being given the deserved recognition, studies where their views are taken into account greatly outweigh in number those where the voices of young refugees directly narrate how they bounce forward in the face of an uncertain future (Walsh 2002). Resilience scholars are challenged to move beyond a narrow understanding of youth refugee resilience by conducting research on their life situations exploring their own perspectives. This article describes some of the insights gained from a phenomenological study— whose methods are particularly effective at capturing and illuminating the experiences and perceptions of individuals from their own perspectives— undertaken with unaccompanied minors living in Germany. The narrative approach used to explicate their narratives highlights seven major coping strategies: (1) Treasuring personal identity, (2) Maintaining cultural identity, (3) Networks of support and social negotiations, (4) Nurturing the need to belong, (5) Embracing a positive outlook, (6) Perceived self-efficacy and personal characteristics, (7) Adopting a growth mindset & self-enhancement expectations. The empirical data of this research show that URMs are active agents in choosing meaningful pathways to resilience and purposefully navigate through the numerous challenges in their lives.

In the light of recent world facts, there has been growing attention paid to refugee minors who, fleeing from violence, war, poverty and climate change, or seeking better opportunities, hope to reach safety in Europe. Challenging life experiences such as war, violence, forced displacement, etc., can potentially threaten children's development. However, many succeed in turning their lives around and develop well despite such negative circumstances. Refugee children, often overlooked by immigration laws and policy makers, prove to be a particularly resilient group, very resourceful in mechanisms for overcoming life adversities. By taking this understanding of refugee minors as a starting point, this article provides an overview of research in the field of resilience, aiming to discuss the implications that tie refugee minors' well-being to the human and children's rights obligations that society bears towards them. The article concludes that there is an urgent need for interventions and programs which target factors that promote refugee children's resilience in their design and implementation, informed by current knowledge of refugee children's life and cultural background, and their self-ratings of negative and positive life events. The standards defined by human and children's rights instruments and equity regarding children's rights to achieve a good life should be a matter to be taken seriously for all children worldwide.