Addressing the Educational Challenge of Unaccompanied Foreign Minors: Sociological Reasons to Deal with It

The following reflections present the path that has guided our theoretical reflections and empirical research experiences since 2017 up to now, on unaccompanied foreign minors in Europe and their access to education. Six reasons, in particular, explain why it makes sense to focus on this specific group of migrant minors transitioning to adulthood, proposing interpretations that not only consider their peculiarities within the framework of migration flows – such as their subalternity, instrumental-acquisitive orientation, racialization and segregation, and the social pressure to quickly achieve autonomy – but also the safeguarding of appropriate spaces and times for formal, non-formal, and informal learning, with reference to a holistic model of educational integration that responds to the cognitive, social, and emotional needs of these young people. Addressing UAMs (Unaccompanied Minors) in their journey toward and within school, in particular, is essential because:

1. They are minors, with a right to education in the contemporary democratic societies, even though they are also irregular migrants with adult projects;
2. It sheds light on important socio-educational dilemmas that permeate international dynamics, in which UAMs experience their mobility;
3. It allows for a deep analysis of the production, reproduction, and amplification of educational inequalities, through the identification of novel mechanisms that operate in contexts of equal opportunities;
4. It makes it possible to classify risks and protective factors that influence the growth of many minors without adult references;
5. They possess typical vulnerabilities and resources, traceable in the paths of many disadvantaged minorities;
6. Finally, it shows how research can shed light on the contextual and institutional conditions that make a statistically improbable phenomenon - UAMs' access to school - possible.