The best interest of the child - As seen by an outreach worker Line Ruud Vollebæk Outreach social worker at Uteseksjonen, Agency for Social and Welfare Services, City of Oslo Training on the human rights and best interests of children in transnational child protection cases, Helsinki 21. september 2016

City of Oslo, Agency for Social and Welfare Services

The best interest of the (migrant) child The ideal solution The next best solution The best possible solution The least harmful solution Not make matters worse City of Oslo, Agency for Social and Welfare Services

The social worker’s perception Our perception is often based on limited information, and influenced by concepts of childhood and family age sex type of activity (harmful, illegal) Professional knowledge Children’s rights vs. Legal barriers (immigration law) Age determination City of Oslo, Agency for Social and Welfare Services

The minors The children and youths are influenced by traffickers / exploiters family and friends dreams and aspirations They can be forced, coerced manipulated tricked driven by their own agency Protection Vs. Participation / right to be heard City of Oslo, Agency for Social and Welfare Services

“Harragas” selling drugs in Oslo Harragas (from Arabicحراقة, ḥarrāga, ḥarrāg, "those who burn" (the frontier/their passport)) Minors (in Oslo: mostly 15-17 years) Without parents / other guardians From Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia Drifting in Europe Asylum seekers / undocumented Concerns related to: physical and mental health, substance abuse, criminal activities, housing, lack of care and adult supervision, vulnerability to exploitation “Protected” or controlled by adult drug dealers Organized crime, local networks and individuals Victims or criminals? City of Oslo, Agency for Social and Welfare Services

The support system vs. adolescents' life projects (Dr. Nick Mai 2010) European social services and institutions address migrant children and young people mainly as vulnerable victims in need of protection. The subjects see themselves as young adults who have to provide the means of subsistence for their families left at home and for themselves. In fact, they feel victimized by the very instruments of protection preventing them from working as a way to avoid child exploitation. As a result, many leave the institutions and programs targeting them and decide to live on the street, which is seen as offering better ways of meeting their aspirations and priorities. Paradoxically, the street and errance are the only spaces of social interaction allowing them to express their contradictory aspirations to a late modern lifestyle of fun and self-realization (freedom) and the necessity to provide for their families at home (money). City of Oslo, Agency for Social and Welfare Services

Errant mobility Many eludes help and choose a life on the street, because the street life is believed to provide better opportunities to meet young people's own aspirations and priorities. This leads young people into a kind of mobility that Dr. Mai describes as "errant mobility“, characterized by: a constant movement between different cities and nations in Europe, highly illegal and dangerous strategies for survival (sex work, drug smuggling and sales, theft, exploitation in unskilled and unregulated sectors of the labor market), ambitions of a fast, linear and easily achievable economic and social independence, and the inability to reconcile “old” and “new” moral worlds City of Oslo, Agency for Social and Welfare Services

Migrant street children Street careers (Lucchini 1993) Instrumental competences: concrete actions to make money to survive (visible) Symbolic competences: long term survival strategies Learning to be illegal (Gonzales 2011) Migrant street youth have to learn both how to survive on the streets (both short term and long term) and how to be an illegal, in a foreign land where they don´t know the language, the system or their rights. = long term effects, difficult transition to adulthood City of Oslo, Agency for Social and Welfare Services

The relationship between street life and migration status City of Oslo, Agency for Social and Welfare Services

Amin (13): ” If I stay here, I can’t help my dad” Sydsvenskan 29 Amin (13): ” If I stay here, I can’t help my dad” Sydsvenskan 29. mars 2015 - Jens Mikkelsen - Foto: Hussein El-Alawi – Jag kom till Europa för att hjälpa min pappa, inget annat. Han är handikappad och behöver en operation. Förstår du mig? Det finns ingen som vill hjälpa mig. Jag vill bara hjälpa min pappa för han är den värdefullaste i världen nu när min mamma är död. Killen bredvid avbryter igen: – Det är han som inte vill ha hjälp. Jag har varit här i några veckor nu och jag har fått hjälp med både mat och ett ställe att bo. – Men om jag stannar här kan jag inte hjälpa pappa, säger Sami, som nu inte lyckas stoppa tårarna. – Jag kom till Spanien, från Spanien till Frankrike, från Frankrike till Italien, från Italien till Schweiz, från Schweiz till Tyskland, från Tyskland till Danmark, från Danmark till Finland, från Finland till Danmark, från Danmark till Sverige. – Att migrera gick upp i mitt huvud. Jag skulle bara resa, för när man har ett mål finns ingenting annat. Ingen återvändo. Flera gånger återkommer han till pappan. Det var för att tjäna ihop de runt 8 000 kronor som operationen kostar, som han begav sig ut i Europa. – Jag vill inte. Jag är tacksam om min pappa får sin operation, för då kan jag stanna här och jobba med mig själv och börja läsa för att bli något. Kan jag börja läsa, kan jag börja planera min framtid. På kompisgängets Facebooksidor finns många bilder där de poserar med sedlar och Iphones. På flera av bilderna räcker de finger mot kameran, i ett barnsligt försök att se coola ut. Pojkarna har omhändertagits flera gånger under sin resa genom Europa. På grund av deras olika åldrar har de ofta placerats på olika boenden. Men eftersom pojkarna har en pakt om att alltid hålla ihop, har de rymt, och med hjälp av Facebook lyckats återförenas innan de rest vidare.

“He wants to lift us from poverty” Jens Mikkelsen - Foto: Hussein El-Alawi - I wish he could sit here and share the food with us. But I know he will not want to be here. And I am so afraid he will drown in one of these boats that cross the Mediterranean, says Hicham. Yes, I hope he can go to school and learn a trade. He is smart. He wants something. Here he has no chance to develop. That's why he flees, says Hicham. I did not think I would get sick and not be able to support my family. Then I had not married and exposed my children for this. Amina sighs.- I should not have shown my tears tohim. I made him feel so great responsibility for us. City of Oslo, Agency for Social and Welfare Services

Osama (11) has been reunited with his father Sydsvenskan, 22. june 2015, Jens Mikkelsen Hicham went to Fez, made contact with some street children and gave them 50dirhams [43 SEK] to help him. A few hours later, the street children came back. They brought with them Osama. - I hugged him so hard that he got hurt, says Hicham when we talk to him on the phone. What did he say when he saw you? - He said, Dad, I do not want to go home, I want to go to my brother. City of Oslo, Agency for Social and Welfare Services

Belal (27) VG 30. mars 2015 Foto: Espen Rasmussen "I've never had documents and migrated illegally from my home country when I was a minor.“ "I've been unlucky my whole life. I have not had any adult to take care of me as a child and my bad luck in life continues to this day. “ "There is one world and all people should have had the same opportunities. If you are born here or there should not play any role. I regret the mistakes I have made. But imagine yourself, what would you have done if you were uneducated and were not allowed to work or contribute with your abilities? " City of Oslo, Agency for Social and Welfare Services

Amalia (16): - Pregnant and begged with Mom Dagbladet, june 2016 The police and the child protection services (CPS) agreed: They believed that Amalia had been trafficked by her own parents. The girl's lawyer claimed that Amalia wanted to be with the family and that she begged because she wanted it for yourself - not because their parents forced her to it, but rather against their will. The County Council decided that Amalia would not stay at the institution. The County Council believed that Amalia experienced the institutional placement as far more distressing than to beg with her mother. “From their culture and difficult background is it considered natural that the older children is contributing. This is unfortunate, but not difficult to understand.” This decision triggered an outrage, claiming it was based on “the worst form of cultural relativisms”, and that the outcome would be different if it was a Norwegian child begging with her parents. FOTO: AAS, ERLEND / NTB SCANPIX City of Oslo, Agency for Social and Welfare Services

City of Oslo, Agency for Social and Welfare Services

References Gonzales, R. G. (2011): Learning to Be Illegal: Undocumented Youth and Shifting Legal Contexts in the Transitions to Adulthood. American Sociological Review 76(4) 602-619 Lucchini, R. (2007): “Street children”: Deconstrucion og a category, In: I. Rizzini et al (Eds.), Life on the Streets. Children and Adolescents on the Streets: Inevitable Trajectories? (pp 49-75). Sion: Institut International des Droits de l-enfant Mai, N. (2010): Marginalized young (male) migrants in the European Union: Caught between the desire for autonomy and the priorities of social protection. In: Kanics, Hernándes and Touzenis (Eds.):Migrating alone. Unaccompanied and separated children’s migration to Europe. UNESCO Publishing City of Oslo, Agency for Social and Welfare Services