UNACCOMPANIED FOREIGN MINORS: A REFLECTION ABOUT THEIR CONDITION AND THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THEIR AGE

Abstract

During the year 2020, the vulnerable conditions of “unaccompanied foreign minors” were amplified primarily due to the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, which led to additional problems in the reception system too. In 2020, in Italy, the minors are 7.080. Sicily is the main region where 25,3% of the Unaccompanied Foreign Minors are present. There are several critical issues, for example, from April 2020, the Italian Ministry of the Interior and Civil Protection introduced measures to ensure the quarantine of persons arriving by sea in quarantine ships. Other difficulties that the reception system has had to face in the last year, such as the interruption of forms of socio-labor insertion or the difficulties in continuing the school and training programs of the minors. In addition, there are all the problems connected to new adults who have left the care system, such as job placement and housing. In this context, the analysis we propose is not directed towards the study of the reception system but towards a reflection on the conditions of minors end on the contradictions that arise from the different meanings that age, as a conceptual category and as an organizational principle of society.