Doctoral Dissertation Research: Caregiving and Care Receiving

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This research project, which trains a graduate student in methods of conducting empirically-grounded scientific research, will investigate how a particular class of young people interact with government-sponsored care and its effects on long-term self-sufficiency. Unaccompanied minors are an internationally protected class of humans, with rights guaranteed by the 1990 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and its ratification into law in 196 nations. However, in practice, there is disagreement about how the care and protection of minors, particularly unaccompanied minor immigrants, actually should happen and what it means. This ambiguity can produce major policy challenges for receiving countries. While the notions of "integration" and "care" are rarely challenged, the practices produced by these ideas may be ambiguous and even ineffective. The researcher asks: How can governments carry out their responsibilities to both their own citizens and to arriving minors? How can the minors become self-sufficient while also conforming to what is asked of them as care recipients? This research is important because it will contribute to understanding the reality of responding to the growing numbers of older unaccompanied minors throughout the world.The research will be carried out by Stanford University anthropology doctoral student, Torin Jones, under the supervision of Dr. Sylvia Yanagisako. The researcher has chosen to situate the project primarily in youth migrant centers in the Mediterranean city of Catania, a longstanding port of migrant disembarkation in Eastern Sicily. This is an appropriate site because Catania is generally regarded as a success story due to its elaborated migrant welcome services. In addition, the region has had multiple approaches to border securitizations. Therefore, understanding the situation in Catania may provide a model for other cities, including migrant receiving sites in the United States. The researcher will collect information through interviews, participant observation, and life history elecitation with bureaucrats, migrant center staff, and migrants themselves. He will also collect and analyze appropriate documents. These materials will allow the researcher to learn how a particular set of policies and programs is received by and affects youth migrants. Findings from the research will contribute to better theory of migrant governance and recipient response. It will also aid policy makers concerned both with the futures of local communities as well the futures of unaccompanied foreign minors.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.