Afgan Refakatsiz Çocukların ve Gençlerin Dayanıklılıklarının ve Yapabilirliklerinin İncelenmesi: Türkiye’den Deneyimler

Abstract

The aim of the research is to understand how Afghan unaccompanied children and youth survive in the face of challenges. The researcher set out with the strengths perspective. The theoretical foundations of the research are resilience and capabilities approach. In this research, the phenomenological design, one of the qualitative research methods, was used. Maximum variation sampling was used to understand the commonality in differences from purposive sampling strategies. Experienced professionals were reached with snowball sampling. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 16 professionals who worked with unaccompanied children in (different) institutions and provinces, and 12 Afghan unaccompanied youth who have not access to the child protection system. The data of the research were analyzed with ATLAS.ti qualitative data analysis software. With the thematic analysis, two themes and six categories were reached by coding the data according to open, axial, and selective coding. The themes are "Challenges Encountered by Unaccompanied Children in Accessing the Child Protection System and Struggling Against the System" and "Survival Skills of Afghan Unaccompanied Youth". Afghan unaccompanied children are forced to migrate due to economic instability in their origin country as a result of years of war and violence. The resources on the migration route are the financial support of the family, the migrant groups they come with on the way, food, the collective self, and their young age, which often prevents to sent back. When they arrive in Turkey, many do not have access to the child protection system or do not want to access to work. Even if they access the system, they encounter limited capabilities that lack institutional capacities, practices do not align with the regulations, and there are obstacles. Unaccompanied children’ struggle against this system, which sometimes leads to oppression, continues by not sharing their real information and escaping from institutional care. When they don’t have access to the child protection system, they often struggle to survive in precarity as child labor. For their families and themselves to survive, they build a life on working and earning money. Responsibility to their families, awareness, self-efficacy and homosocial solidarity networks supports their resilience. The research has proposed a list of nine capabilities for (Afghan) unaccompanied children, which is open to further development. This research is significant in terms of its contribution to migration research and child protection system for unaccompanied children.