Abstract
Although unaccompanied minors became visible in Spain in the late 1990s, they are still seen as a new migratory phenomenon, provoking numerous debates and questions around appropriate responses. This chapter aims to unveil the rights and wrongs of the current protection system in Catalonia through analysis and discussion of the role of socio-educational intervention in overcoming the prejudice-based discourses and attitudes that criminalize these migrants. In a descriptive study, staff from all the centres of the protection system of the Barcelona General Directorate for Child and Adolescent Care were interviewed. Results showed that overcrowding in the protection system was causing tensions and dysfunctions. Great efforts must be made to develop individualized educational interventions adapted to unaccompanied minors' specific situations and to facilitate their integration. Five main recommendations and a range of future lines of research derive from these findings.
TopIntroduction
Although the social phenomenon of unaccompanied minors began to become visible in Spain in the late 1990s, it is still seen as a new migratory phenomenon of global dimensions, combined with increasing religious and cultural diversity, in addition to other globalizing factors such as the recent economic crisis, wars, terrorism and the current health pandemic. In this context, in the last two decades the arrival of these migrant young people, unaccompanied by adult carers, has been at the forefront of political and media agendas, giving rise to numerous debates, discourses and interventions. As new horizons of uncertainty have affected their reception and integration, the phenomenon has suffered overexposure in the public sphere, which at the same time has made other factors affecting these minors invisible (Trujillo, 2010). Popularized in Spain as ‘MENA’ (an acronym for ‘unaccompanied foreign minors’ in Spanish), they are seen as highly vulnerable boys and girls who need special attention from government institutions and the relevant specialists. They are children and adolescents under the age of 18 who migrate irregularly and without the company of adults from their countries of birth, which may suffer poverty, war, etc., to other geographical areas in search of better quality of life (Fuentes, 2014). Through the pre-migration, migration and post-migration phases, their experiences have major similarities in both the United States and Europe (Menjívar & Perreira, 2017) and have caused the same concerns: with regard to post-migration, for instance, the issue of the adequacy of resources catering for them. There is a huge gap between the rights they formally enjoy and the administrative and bureaucratic abuse they experience once they reach their destination (Barbulescu & Grugel, 2016). Furthermore, the causes of their mobility are hidden behind their categorization as ‘MENA’ and the homogenizing discourses classifying them (Marco, 2017), thus making the structural conditions behind their mobility invisible (Marco & Gómez, 2020).
Taking this phenomenon as a starting point, this chapter aims to unveil the rights and wrongs of the current protection system for unaccompanied minors in Catalonia through an analysis and discussion of the role of socio-educational intervention in overcoming the discourses and social attitudes, built around prejudice and intolerance, that criminalize them. Specifically, it focuses on the province of Barcelona as one of the most important reception areas that these children and young people, mostly from Morocco and other African countries, choose once they are in the peninsula. The main arguments derive from a study entitled “Intercultural and interreligious dialogue to promote a culture of peace among young people and unaccompanied foreign minors in Barcelona and Melilla (ReligDialog)” (RTI2018-095259-B-I00, MCIU/AEI/FEDER, UE), which set out make migrant minors’ situation visible by identifying their main needs and those of the organizations attending them on a daily basis. Our analyses will offer guidance for government agencies responsible for their care, in addition to contributing to the design of guidelines for organizations working with them.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Social Educator: A qualified education professional who carries out socio-educational intervention and mediation in a range of social settings to foster the emancipation of young people with social difficulties or at risk of social exclusion.
First Reception and Comprehensive Care Centre: A specialized service that provides first reception offering accommodation, information, comprehensive care and maintenance to recently arrived foreign minors who arrive in Catalonia without families. In contrast to other services, this service is also responsible for assessing, guiding and providing support for the social integration of these young people.
Sheltered Apartments for Young People From 16 to 18: A service aimed at preventing and/or alleviating the situation of risk of this sector of the adolescent population, comprising young people without families, or with no valid family, in order to foster their emancipation process and ensure their social and occupational integration.
Intensive Education Residential Centre (CREI): This is are a residential reception service, with a limited stay, with structural protection measures for the care and education of its users, supervised by the Generalitat of Catalonia (the Catalan regional government). Its objective is to address the educational and specific care needs of adolescents and young people (aged 12 to 18) who present behavioural disorders that require alternative specialized attention. The service can be complemented with specific units for those adolescents and young people who strongly reject residential protection measures.
Educational Action Residential Centre (CRAE): These are institutions for the care and education of children and adolescents (aged from 0 to 18) to whom a simple foster care order is applied, in accordance with the recommendations of the first reception report. The objective of the CRAE is to meet the young people’s care and educational needs when these require specialized attention and an alternative upbringing to the family of origin.
Individualized Educational Project (IEP): A pedagogical document that prioritizes and systematizes the work plan to be carried out with each minor, specifying both objectives and assessment of their development and progress.
Emergency Protection Service: A specialized service that provides emergency reception offering accommodation, food, primary healthcare, information, psychological care and legal support to unaccompanied foreign minors recently arrived in Catalonia, and makes a preliminary analysis of their migration projects, along with assessment and referral to other services, mainly to the first reception and comprehensive care centres.
Directorate General for Child and Adolescent Care in Barcelona (DGAIA): This is the section of the Department of Work, Social Affairs and Families of the Catalan government that promotes the well-being of children and adolescents at high risk of social marginalization, with the aim of contributing to their personal development. It also exercises the protection and guardianship of vulnerable children and adolescents.