How I met my mother: Kinning and new beginnings between unaccompanied Afghan minors and voluntary Danish guardians

TY - JOUR

T1 - How I met my mother

T2 - Kinning and new beginnings between unaccompanied Afghan minors and voluntary Danish guardians

AU - Nielsen, Lærke Møller

AU - Rytter, Mikkel

PY - 2024

Y1 - 2024

N2 - A relatively large part of the asylum seekers that came to Denmark during ‘the long summer of migration’ in 2015 were under the age of 18 and travelled without adult relatives. The numbers of unaccompanied minors from Afghanistan were 844 in 2015 and 527 in 2016. As minors they receive professional help, care and guidance in the in the asylum process, and are placed in special centers for minors. When they finally are granted temporary residency as refugees, they get a legal guardian, a volunteer Danish citizen that agree to help the youngsters establish a new life in the municipality they have been assigned to. Inspired by Signe Howell’s (2006) work on transnational adoption in Norwegian families this paper discusses the dynamics of kinning processes where unaccompanied minors and their legal guardians over time develop strong emotional ties. The bumbling transformation of ‘order of law’ into ‘order of nature’ not only constitute a new beginning of family relationships, but may also promote a future model for sustainable inclusion of refugees in Denmark.

AB - A relatively large part of the asylum seekers that came to Denmark during ‘the long summer of migration’ in 2015 were under the age of 18 and travelled without adult relatives. The numbers of unaccompanied minors from Afghanistan were 844 in 2015 and 527 in 2016. As minors they receive professional help, care and guidance in the in the asylum process, and are placed in special centers for minors. When they finally are granted temporary residency as refugees, they get a legal guardian, a volunteer Danish citizen that agree to help the youngsters establish a new life in the municipality they have been assigned to. Inspired by Signe Howell’s (2006) work on transnational adoption in Norwegian families this paper discusses the dynamics of kinning processes where unaccompanied minors and their legal guardians over time develop strong emotional ties. The bumbling transformation of ‘order of law’ into ‘order of nature’ not only constitute a new beginning of family relationships, but may also promote a future model for sustainable inclusion of refugees in Denmark.

M3 - Journal article

SN - 2049-5838

JO - Migration Studies

JF - Migration Studies

ER -