Community Structures and Processes on Lives of Refugee Children: (Series in Sociology)

Communities around the world face challenges in how to assist the influx of refugees and immigrants, who arrive with only the clothes on their backs. They may have health problems and have experienced violence and trauma before they arrived in their new communities. They require healthcare, housing, education, jobs, financial & material support, and childcare, to name a few. Some arrive with families, but often, children and youth arrive unaccompanied and are in need of special care. Even well-intentioned and resource-rich communities may find themselves taxed as they struggle to help everyone in need. This book is framed by a human rights approach and highlights how social structures and institutional processes impact the lives of refugee and asylum-seeking children. Social institutions around the world tend to experience a similar type of challenge in serving this population. These challenges are examined in this book as recommendations for actions provided. The authored contributions present different perspectives on processes, interactions, policies, practices, and laws embedded in a variety of institutions and community social interactions. It is a reference for researchers, practitioners, and students in its presentation of academic and practitioner approaches to challenges faced by refugee children in different geographic and social contexts. Topics in this book include work on the character of transnational migrant families and communities, uses of new information and communication technologies, international frameworks of humanitarian assistance, social inclusion best practices in the integration of migrant children and unaccompanied minors, and models to provide multidisciplinary services on prevention, integration and rehabilitation integration strategies. Concepts of ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) and HOPEs (Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences) are explored, along with lifelong learning as a catalyst for the sustained promotion of safe communities in the context of migration; and individual refugee needs and their family's future wellbeing towards service to refugees that work for the individual.

Table of Contents:
List of Tables and Figures Authors' Biographies Introduction: Why Community Structures and Processes Matter in the Lives of Refugee Children Sofia Leitão Rinova Ltd Yvonne Vissing Salem State University CHAPTER 1 Transnational Families - A Vulnerability of Migration José Noronha Rodrigues Universidade dos Açores, Portugal Dora Cabete Universidade dos Açores, Portugal CHAPTER 2 What Role does the General Comments of Human Rights Instruments Have in the Community Structure of the Asylum-Seeking Refugee Child? UNCRC Article 22 Tanya Herring Salem State University CHAPTER 3 Minors and Forced Migration: Between Integration Plans and Repressive Policies Isolde Quadranti European Documentation Centre of University of Verona, Italy CHAPTER 4 Use of Information-Communication Technologies Among Unaccompanied Migrant Youth in Liminal Places Blaž Lenarčič Science and research centre Koper, Slovenia Zorana Medarić Science and research centre Koper, Slovenia CHAPTER 5 Human Rights and the Reception of Unaccompanied Children: The Holistic Model of 'Homes for Hope' in Cyprus Dialechti Chatzoudi University of Cyprus, Cyprus CHAPTER 6 The Right to Education of Children and Adult Refugees in Portugal Graça Santos Escola Superior de Educação of the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança, Portugal; CEAD - Center for Research in Adult Education and Community Intervention Sofia Bergano Escola Superior de Educação of the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança, Portugal; CEAD - Center for Research in Adult Education and Community Intervention CHAPTER 7 Services for Refugee, Asylee, and Victim of Human Trafficking Youth in South Florida Regina Bernadin International Rescue Committee, USA Cristobal Pérez Independent Scholar Raúl Fernández-Calienes St. Thomas University, USA CHAPTER 8 Resilience in Liberia: An Initial Study Greg Carroll Salem State University Allan Shwedel Salem State University George Weagba United Methodist University, Liberia Joe Buttner Salem State University David Mercer Salem State University CHAPTER 9 Safe and Empowered Communities: Ending FGM Investing in Migrant Women's Lifelong Learning Sofia Leitão Rinova Ltd Amanda Francis Rinova Ltd Sami Atif Rinova Ltd CHAPTER 10 Integration is the Process of Accumulating Micro Integrations Over Time Richard Thickpenny University of West of England; Aston University; The New Penny Ltd Conclusion Yvonne Vissing Salem State University Sofia Leitão Rinova Ltd Index

About the Author :
Sofia Leitão, Ph.D., is a Sociologist, Senior Development Manager at Rinova Ltd (UK), Senior Advisory Board Member at "Hope For Children" CRC Policy Center (Cyprus). Sofia's work reflects her interest in children's agency in matters related to their spheres of action. She is particularly interested in raising awareness on the Rights of the Child; in developing learning programmes promoting child-friendly practices, children's entrepreneurship, social inclusion and participation; non-formal education with an emphasis on storytelling and the use of media and arts as means to enhance self-expression and learning. Sofia has directed the development and implementation of numerous programmes in the field of the Rights of the Child, including the transnational programme INTEGRA: Multidisciplinary Mentorship program to support the entrepreneurship of children in care and young care-leavers; BASE: Migrant and Refugee Child-friendly Support Services in cases of sexual and gender-based violence; HIT: Hate Interrupter Teams (funded by the Rights, equality & Citizenship programme of the European commission); FATIMAII: Preventing Honour Related Violence against women through Social Impact Projects and Peer Learning led by Young men. She is the author of a book on media discourses and childhood constructions 'Desenhos Animados - Discursos sobre ser criança' (Edições 70) and co-editor of 'The Rights of Unaccompanied Minors: Perspectives and Case Studies on Migrant Children' (Springer). Yvonne Vissing, Ph.D., is Professor of Sociology and Founding Director of the Centre for Childhood and Youth Studies at Salem State University in Salem, Massachusetts. Yvonne has worked in the area of child and youth advocacy for her entire career collaborating with different child rights groups in the USA. Her work is driven by the pursuit of human rights, community-building, resiliency, peace and justice. Yvonne has worked as a teacher, researcher, consultant, therapist, award-winning filmmaker, mediator, guardian-ad-litem, and helps organizations to decrease child abuse and improve child well-being. She is a former fellow at the National Institute of Mental Health, University of Connecticut Center for Democracy, and Whiting Foundation. Author/co-author of 15 books and hundreds of chapters, professional journal articles and other publications, including 'Children's Human Rights in the USA: Challenges and Opportunities' (Springer, forthcoming), 'The Rights of Unaccompanied Minors: Perspectives and Case Studies on Migrant Children' (Springer), 'Children's Human Rights as a Buffer to Extremism' (Springer); 'Changing the Paradigm of Homelessness' (Routledge) and 'Out of Sight, Out of Mind: Homeless Children in Small Town America' (Lexington).

Review :

What is needed to provide a safe and prosperous future for refugee children? In this anthology, several highly regarded scholars come together to give their thoughts on this difficult yet important matter. The methodology differs throughout the book offering both qualitative research, legal reasoning, accounts of local projects and much more. We learn about the experiences of children on the move from both their and their caregivers' perspective, and we hear about the formal and informal barriers for successful healing and absorption into a new culture and place to call home. Though the title indicates that the scope of the anthology is only refugee children, some chapters also, or primarily, include immigrant children, and while this at first can be a bit confusing for the reader, it becomes clear that the lines between being an immigrant or a refugee are blurry at best and differ from country to country making it impossible to insist on a very strict categorization. The anthology is largely written in a language that makes it accessible not only for academics but for all parties interested in developing good practices for working with children who are no longer living in their country of origin.

Prof. Dr. Caroline Adolphsen

Aarhus University, Denmark