Building My Place in the World: A Clinical Sociological Approach of Young Migrants Experience in France

This proposition focuses on young foreigners arriving in France without their legal guardians: the so- called “unaccompanied minors”. Since the years 1990 the migration of young minors by themselves challenges European countries to develop welcome policies regarding child care. If the International Convention on the Rights of Children establishes the responsibility of public authorities regarding the vulnerability of their situation, it is for us today to observe the specificities of educational-protective work and the mishaps of care provide to this population.

The research centers on these young people experience of welcoming and “un-welcoming” in the region of Ile de France (Paris), more specifically for those who are relegated outside the child care institutional walls.

Following a clinical sociological approach, our research noticed the many effects of a policy of un-welcoming, referring subjects constantly on the condition of “not being”. For the XIX ISA Congress, we propose to focuse on one aspect of this research: the social and psychological support that these young migrants mobilize to be able to build their professional and life projects despite the difficulties faced. What kind of strategies they develop to face this un-welcoming policies? What type of support they are able to find and to invest – in and outside institutions / in and outside themselves?

Based on the work of G. Devereux (2012) and J. Favret-Saada (1977), this communication grants an important matter to the notion of implication and transference / counter-transference in research. Our results propose an interdisciplinary dialogue between sociological, psychological and philosophical fields in order to understand the complexity of this contemporary situation. These young migrants crossing borders challenges countries around the world to think and re-think immigration patterns.