Age is Just a Number? Supporting Migrant Young People with Precarious Legal Status in the UK

Abstract

This paper challenges the focus on age 18 as an exclusionary point in law for migrant young people, particularly unaccompanied migrants, with insecure legal status. Initially meant to provide a protective category of “childhood” in law, focus on age 18 creates a sharp transition point in law for young people. This chronological concept of age does not match up with the reality of lives of many young people who step into adulthood without being able to live in a self-supporting manner. Law recognises the constraints and provides some respite for British national children who are in care; however, non-UK migrant and/or asylum-seeking young people in this situation are immediately at risk of losing their liberty. We suggest that non-British migrant young people aged 18–21 should be treated as a youth category in a manner similar to that used for British young people in care.

Thirty Years of Research on Children’s Rights in the Context of Migration

“…For instance, we did not identify academic publications which specifically look at the rights of migrant children with disabilities.17 Relatively few publications engage with other identity markers of refugee and migrant children from an intersectionality perspective, such as ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression, beyond their impact on the refugee status determination procedure (e.g., Hedlund and Wimark, 2019). Age is mostly a topic in relation to age assessment (e.g., Prabhat, Singleton and Eyles, 2019), but research on migrant children does not often disaggregate further between specific groups (e.g., younger and older children) in the context of migration, notwithstanding their potentially different needs and experiences. This risks reducing children to their migratory experiences.…”

“…One example of the latter approach is Stalford (2018), who demonstrates that a child's participation in the asylum process in the UK, which purports to give effect to a child's right to be heard, may in fact undermine a child's claim for asylum and works against other rights of the child, especially the best interests principle. In addition, Prabhat et al (2019) have challenged the age limit of 18 of the children's rights framework and plead for a smoother transition to adulthood for British migrant young people between 18 and 21 years, inspired by the UK's youth care system. A critical analysis of the impact on children's rights when a child transitions to adulthood has been the focus of research utilising the frames of best interests, durable solutions and belonging (Allsopp and Chase, 2019).…”