Editorial by Ms Manuela Scelsi, PhD Candidate and Assistant, UER Children Rights, IUKB, Sion

The passage to adulthood is an important and delicate moment in a youth’s life. Several studies have shown that “the process of passing from adolescence to adulthood has become longer, more complex, and less methodical in the course of the past 50 years .”¹ When referring to the passage to adulthood, we can concentrate on legal majority, with access to new rights and responsibilities, but possibly also on a less clear cut passage allowing the adolescent to become “young adult” in various steps. Those steps vary according to the youth, his/her origins, his/her culture. They vary and follow no precise timing : first job, renting a flat, living with a partner, sometimes marriage and the first child outline this way taking the youth towards growing autonomy.

During this transition period, the adolescent craves important resources from the family and surrounding: money resources, but social, educational and emotional as well, to find their way into society as adult and autonomous member.

If we now focus on groups of particularly vulnerable adolescents, as youths placed in institutions, or unaccompanied migrants, it is easy to imagine to what extent the passage to adulthood is being complicated by several factors. As W. Osgood States : “It seems likely that these vulnerable populations, who face a combination of larger challenges and reduced family support, will be at the greatest disadvantage in negotiating transition to adulthood.” ²

This situation is particularly striking in the case Unaccompanied Migrant Minors (UAM). In Switzerland, UAM are in most cases attributed to an institution for migrants, more or less adapted to their specific needs. They do enjoy adapted protection and are given the possibility of study or vocational training. As soon as they arrive in Switzerland, they are quasi-certain that, until their 18 years, they will be authorized to stay in the country. But what happens once legal majority is reached? Most of the youths will receive no positive answer to their asylum application. And things are getting tougher for them, with difficult choices facing them. The first : staying or leaving? Choosing to leave, they might be granted return assistance from the Swiss Confederation. However, getting back home means giving up on the migratory project. A step difficult to handle, when one’s family got into heavy debt to sent a member abroad, and when one is supposed to refund the sum with one’s work “in Europe”.

If on the contrary the youth decides to stay, the choice is in no way simpler. If the asylum application is rebuked, one of the possible ways for ex-UAM is emergency aid. A life-saving solution that hampers any project-making. Another possibility is living and working undercover, maybe a second application in another European country with the hope of being more “lucky”. Some of these  youth will be able to stay legally, to finish vocational training, or thanks to a humanitarian permit. In any case, the situation of ex-UAM remains precarious and prevents young adults to imagine a future in the mid-term.

And there the most painful disappointment is in store for them. All the projects they believed in, they had built during their stay as minors, are in risk to fail. Protection and support are granted by law to children; childhood legally ends at 18. There is no transition from the sphere of childhood to adulthood in Swiss Law on foreigners, UAM must accordingly adapt quickly, making excruciating choices who jeopardize projects that had cost many efforts.

So far in the reflection, a question imposes itself : would it not be possible to provide for a “buffer” period, in order to all freshly come of age UAM to finalize their projects : to complete their studies or vocational training, likely to grant them a living? Such a solution would allow youth, in concrete terms, to think their future with some flexibility and with real power of decision.

^1. D. Wayne Osgood (2005) “On your own without a net. The transition to adulthood for vulnerable population”
^2. ibidem

Disclaimer: The editorial does not necessarily reflect the opinion of IDE Board and team.

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