Unaccompanied foreign minors (UFM)
Marinella Muscarà
Kore University of Enna

In the vast majority of cases, unaccompanied foreign minors (UFM) are young people who, for the most part, embark on a migratory journey. They often arrive together with their parents but later end up alone. As outlined by Presidential Decree no. 535 of 1999, Italian law uses the formula unaccompanied foreign minors present in the territory of the state to refer to “a minor with no Italian or other European Union State citizenship who has not applied for asylum and is for any reason in the national territory, without assistance or representation by parents or other adults legally responsible for him/her according to the laws in force in the Italian legal system” (own translation).
The minor status of these young people suggests the status quo of adolescents, a crucial condition during which individuals develop personality and identity and engage in social and scholastic adaptation on the basis of complex emotional memories. Therefore, in evaluating and taking care of minors, the focus should fall not only on their migration processes, but also on their identity construction and life projects. Law n. 47 of 7 April 2017 delineates measures for protecting unaccompanied foreign minors and ensures the monitoring and safeguarding of children and adolescents. In particular, this law protects the fundamental rights of minors, i.e. the right to education and training, the appointment of legal guardians, age assessment and legal identification, the right to be listened to and the right to healthcare. A thorough reception process begins from the legal and human recognition of the rights of infants in order to uncover and facilitate the achievement of UFMs’ life projects.
Therefore, protecting unaccompanied foreign minors is crucial for a pedagogy that seeks to take care of and monitor their integrity, adaptation and social and educational well-being. It is possible to “tackle” the educational and social fragility of minors by enhancing the protective factors related to UFMs’ adaptive and personality development: by implementing inclusive pathways that care for and monitor the educational process as a whole, as well as by building social support nets and networks of school-work relations (e.g. Arbabi et al., 2017). A recognition of UFMs’ basic needs is closely linked to their sense of autonomy and responsibility as well as planning for the future, considering the social and school context as an opportunity (Roxas & Roy, 2012).
In the RE-SERVES project, the incoming migrants and minors research action focuses on analysing the needs and adaptation processes of unaccompanied foreign children and/or adolescents.

Selected references

Arbabi, K., Yeh, C. J., Mahmud, Z., & Salleh, A. (2017). From monocultural to multicultural: Adaptation of Iranian immigrant adolescents in Malaysia. Journal of Adolescent Research, 32(3), 371-402.

Camera dei deputati ed il Senato della Repubblica (2017). Legge n. 47 del 7 Aprile 2017. Disposizioni in materia di misure di protezione dei minori stranieri non accompagnati. https://www.gazzettaufficiale.it/eli/id/2017/04/21/17G00062/sg.

Presidente del Consiglio dei Ministri (1999). Regolamento concernente i compiti del Comitato per i minori stranieri, a norma dell’articolo 33, commi 2 e 2-bis, del decreto legislativo 25 luglio 1998, n. 286.

https://www.gazzettaufficiale.it/atto/serie_generale/caricaDettaglioAtto/originario?atto.dataPubblicazioneGazzetta=2000-01-25&atto.codiceRedazionale=000G0029&elenco30giorni=false

Roxas, K., & Roy, L. (2012). “That’s how we roll”: A case study of a recently arrived refugee student in an urban high school. The Urban Review, 44(4), 468-486.