12 March 2023: Webinar on Monday 17th April from 17:00 to 18:30: Children and the Hostile Environment
Social Scientists Against The Hostile Environment (SSAHE) is a project of the Special Interest Group (SIG) on Refugees, Migration, and Settlement established by some Fellows of the Academy of Social Sciences (AcSS). As social scientists based in universities and the third sector, SSAHE’s work focuses on issues of racism and migration in the UK and globally. SSAHE believes in a duty as social scientists to use research to inform political debates and to challenge the ‘Hostile Environment’ for migrants produced by current government policy.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, SSAHE began to run a monthly ‘webinar’ where SSAHE members and colleagues in the academy and community organisations came together to present, explore and discuss issues of racism, migration, and migration policy in the UK and globally, in relation to the pandemic and in broader terms. These webinars continue, bi-monthly, now, and frequently attract an audience of up to 100 people.
The next webinar is being held on Monday the 17th of April from 17:00 to 18:30, and the details are below. The webinar is free to attend and can be booked here on Eventbrite.
SSAHE April webinar: Children and the Hostile Environment
In early 2023, an investigation by the UK Observer newspaper raised concerns that several ‘unaccompanied’ refugee children are going missing from the hotels in which they have been placed by the Home Office. In response to questions, Robert Jenrick, Minister of State for Immigration, has told Parliament that 440 of the more than 4,600 ‘unaccompanied minors’ who have been accommodated in hotels since July 2021, have gone missing. While almost half of them have been found, 200 are still missing, 13 of whom were aged under 16 when they disappeared. A whistleblower revealed that children seeking asylum were threatened and subjected to racist abuse by staff at a Home Office-run hotel, driving them onto the streets where some have been picked up by criminals.
These revelations helped to make the UK public conscious that children are subject to hostile immigration policies that can leave them exposed to trafficking, severe hardship and danger. It has long been known, however, that the hostile environment has dire consequences for ‘undocumented’ children. As long ago as 2011 the Council of Europe published a report on ‘Undocumented migrant children in an irregular situation: A real cause for concern’. The evidence available shows that ‘undocumented’ children are often unable to access education, healthcare and welfare support. They have great difficulty in obtaining documents to regularise their immigration status, partly because they (and their parents where relevant) are legally debarred from access to public funds. They are, therefore, destitute and have no access to legal aid or means to pay application fees. Many are subject to age verification tests or even DNA tests to check their relationships to their parent(s). This treatment is likely to have negative impacts on their mental health.
While there has been a gradual accretion of work on children and the hostile environment, it is still the case that relatively little attention is paid to children’s experiences of the hostile environment, whether they migrate with family members or on their own. A number of pressing questions arise from this. For example: What protection is given to those arriving without family members by those appointed by the state to take care of them? What are the implications of the privatisation of such care? What is the experience of those living who arrive with their parent(s)? How do those experiences fit with legislation about children’s rights? How can the more welcoming approach to children and parents escaping the war in Ukraine inform best practices for other child migrants?
In this webinar, we will host three excellent speakers who are particularly well-placed to address these issues from research policy and practice perspectives.
The event will have three papers followed by a Q/A.
Postponing destitution and deportation through enclosure by Rachel Rosen, an Associate Professor at UCL’s Social Research Institute
Becoming adult on the move: transitions to adulthood of unaccompanied migrant minors in a hostile environment by Nando Sigona, a Professor of International Migration and Forced Displacement and Director of the Institute for Research into Superdiversity at the University of Birmingham
Defend Digital me and Against Borders for Children (Schools ABC) by Jen Persson, the Director of the not-for-profit organisation, Defend Digital Me, which campaigns for children’s privacy and broader digital rights in UK education and the wider public sector.