Abstract

JIMENEZ-FRANCO, Daniel; BERZOSA-CALLEN, Raquel  and  GIMENO-MONTERDE, Chabier. Experiences of Transition to Adult Life Among Young People Who Migrated Alone. A Study in Aragón (Spain). Prospectiva [online]. 2021, n.32, pp.37-56.  Epub July 01, 2021. ISSN 0122-1213.  https://doi.org/10.25100/prts.v0i32.10933.

The transition to adult life of unaccompanied foreign minors - and, therefore, the role of specialized social services in attending to this very important stage in the lives of so-called ex-MENAs, in Spanish institutional jargon - constitutes one of the stages least attended by academic researchers. This paper tries to point out the challenges and obstacles that specialized social services face in caring for unaccompanied young people at the end of foster care. We will present the results of a qualitative exploratory study. Main issues detected in the field work can be grouped into three categories (institutional, contextual and legal) and all of them show the need to equip the so-called “emancipation programs” with stable and standardized organization, along with adequate economic and technical resources. Secondly, approaches based on the social fabric at the community level appear as the optimal reference. A third condition that our study came to confirm is the definition of planned transition routes, involving legal (residence permit) and social support (educational and employment opportunities).

Keywords : Unaccompanied Foreign Minors; Migration; Emancipation; Transition.

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