Publicaties

Unaccompanied refugee minors (URMs) are a group in an especially vulnerable situation with heightened psychological suffering due to both stressful life events and current daily stressors. Research has shown that certain coping strategies such as avoidance can be adaptive in the face of ongoing stress. We conceptualize social support as an essential coping resource that these strategies tap into. Since the interrelations between these factors ...

Since the end of the Second World War in 1945, the erection of camps within and across state borders has become the most common response to the influx of displaced persons. Based on empirical evidence from northern Uganda, this paper aims to provide answers to two main questions: (i) how does the camp influence and frame the upbringing of children?; and (ii) how do caregivers shape and adjust upbringing within this setting and when they return ...

There is growing interest in the role of schools in supporting children facing adversity, including children with refugee and immigrant backgrounds. Based on six months of ethnographic fieldwork (December 2018 to June 2019) and interviews with teachers in two classes for adolescent newcomer refugee and immigrant learners in Denmark, this paper explores teacher responses to everyday dilemmas in supporting and caring for refugee and immigrant ...

Drawing on in-depth interviews with representatives from 17 organisations, this paper focuses on patterns of collaboration between different actors involved in the pre- and post-adulthood trajectories of youngsters arriving in Belgium as unaccompanied refugee minors. First, we clarify that the Belgian support system for these minors is characterised by fragmentation. In order for this fragmented system to benefit minors, different actors need to ...

Based on in-depth interviews with 41 Cameroonian returnees, this paper aims to analyse the family as a site of geopolitics in return and reintegration processes. We unpack the negotiation between migrants and their families as a form of political power both before and following return and how this shapes the reintegration processes of migrants. In so doing, we emphasise the importance of the accumulation and redistribution of resources as ...

Using the concepts of social navigation and vital conjunctures, this paper investigates how Cameroonian returnees experience their return in a crisis-ridden context in constant decay, characterised by material and existential uncertainties. Based on semi-structured interviews with 41 Cameroonians returning from countries in the Global North under different circumstances, we examine the ingenuity of these returnees to navigate an environment that ...

Considering the high number of Nigerian women in prostitution in Italy, many of whom are forced into it as victims of trafficking, this population is often confronted with negative perceptions and stigmas, and constantly experiences “sexual stigma.” Owing to the stigmatization and racial profiling that they encounter while traveling to Italy via the central Mediterranean route, they become more vulnerable to exploitation and different forms of ...

Objectives The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated health inequalities worldwide, having a disproportionately harsh impact on unprivileged populations such as migrants and refugees. These populations are often more exposed to the virus, but less protected, while at the same time being at higher risk of suffering from poor living and working conditions, limited access to healthcare, and discrimination by the host society, all of which is ...