CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2022
| Author | Elsaid, Amira Ahmed Abdelaziz |
|---|---|
| Title | Children and Youth in Transit: State Ambivalence, NGO Governance, and Migration Strategies of Unaccompanied Children and Youth in Egypt |
| Summary | Given the current unprecedented mobility, unaccompanied children (UAC) and youth are receiving increased attention as a discursive and administrative category. Perceptions on UAC and youth range from viewing them as innocent vulnerable victims to agents who make life-changing, and life-threatening, decisions. This thesis explores how the refugee governance and assistance landscapes in Egypt relate to the migration decisions and strategies of UAC and youth on the move. Relying on semi-structured interviews, the thesis provides an account of NGO practitioners’ perceptions of the UAC and youth situation in Egypt including provided services, persistent challenges, and how they navigate them. Although the main scope is Egypt as an ambivalent host and a transit country, the landscape in Egypt and its government policies cannot be studied in isolation from the global migration apparatus. Building on frameworks of anthropology of policy, non-local ethnography, and the notion of the migration apparatus, policies and practices resulting from the relations between a multiplicity of actors and interactions between disparate policy domains are analysed to complement the study. As their social inclusion in Egypt is hindered by structural barriers, not addressed sustainably by NGOs, and not mitigated by arranged resettlement to third countries, UAC and youth resort to irregular migration to escape a situation of indefinite temporariness in transit. The thesis aims to contribute to understandings of the construction of a UAC and youth governance and assistance landscape and to provide a set of realistic recommendations to improve this landscape. |
| Supervisor | Rajaram, Prem Kumar; Zentai, Violetta |
| Department | Sociology MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2022/elsaid_amira.pdf |
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