Children in Migration: Status and Identity PDF
Preview Children in Migration: Status and Identity
Markiewicz-Stanny | Milej | Wedeł-Domaradzka (Eds.) Children in Migration Status and Identity Joanna Markiewicz-Stanny | Tomasz Milej Agnieszka Wedeł-Domaradzka (Eds.) Children in Migration Status and Identity This book was reviewed by Prof. Wioletta Jedlecka and Prof. Anna Magdalena Kosińska. The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de ISBN 978-3-8487-8939-9 (Print) 978-3-7489-3216-1 (ePDF) British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 978-3-8487-8939-9 (Print) 978-3-7489-3216-1 (ePDF) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Markiewicz-Stanny, Joanna | Milej, Tomasz Wedeł-Domaradzka, Agnieszka Children in Migration Status and Identity Joanna Markiewicz-Stanny | Tomasz Milej Agnieszka Wedeł-Domaradzka (Eds.) 324 pp. Includes bibliographic references. ISBN 978-3-8487-8939-9 (Print) Onlineversion 978-3-7489-3216-1 (ePDF) Nomos eLibrary 1st Edition 2022 © Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, Baden-Baden, Germany 2022. Overall responsibility for manufacturing (printing and production) lies with Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG. This work is subject to copyright. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. Under § 54 of the German Copyright Law where copies are made for other than private use a fee is payable to “Verwertungs gesellschaft Wort”, Munich. No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Nomos or the editors. Table of contents Introduction 7 Part I General considerations 11 The right to an identity: The context of the rights of the migrant child 13 Agnieszka Wedeł-Domaradzka Interplay of International and Domestic Laws Governing Birth Registration of Children: Need for Reconsideration 37 Ratemo Tom Junior Climate Change and Refugee Children: The Key Refugee Protection Standards provided by the Convention on Rights of the Child 75 Allan Mukuki “When a child is (going to be) born…” – The influence of motherhood on the status of women irregular migrants 91 Magdalena Półtorak Part II Regional solutions 111 On integration (not only of migrants) – differently 113 Jacek Mazurkiewicz, Piotr Szymaniec 5 Table of contents A right to asylum? Ensuring effective protection of migrant children’s rights in Africa 131 Tomasz Milej Regional Reponses to Nationality, Citizenship and child statelessness: The case of the East Africa Community 151 Emmah Wabuke, Patricia Ouma Rethinking the Right to Nationality in Africa: A Reflection on the Children of Nubian Descent in Kenya Case 169 Faith Kabata Part III Country studies 185 Migrant Children in German AnkER centres vs. European and international standards 187 Martyna Łaszewska-Hellriegel Sociological Perspectives on Childhood under Conditions of Refugeeness in Germany 211 Caterina Rohde-Abuba The Principle of the Best Interests of the Child in the Italian System of Protection of Unaccompanied Migrant Children 235 Amina Maneggia New rights for unaccompanied foreign minors in light of the Italian Law 47/2017 269 Alessia Valongo Bibliography 287 6 Introduction The chapters of the present volume are intended to discuss the legal status of migrant children and to address a number of questions it raises under the public international and the national law of European and African States. The volume distances itself from discourses on migration which portray migrants first and foremost as a security threat. Rooted in Europe’s racist past, they were given new impetus by the so called ʻmigration crisisʼ of 2015. And yet, the number of people who reached Europe’s shores at that time was more or less equivalent to a combined number of refugees hosted by just two African countries: Uganda and Kenya. There are hardly any avenues of legal migration from the South to the North. Those who try to reach Europe’s ʻpearly gatesʼ nevertheless, are likely to face mistreatment, abuse or death. The billions spent on fortifying and militarizing Europe’s borders fuel the perception of a migrant as a threat. And this perception is used as an argument to deploy at the borders even more formidable military force and spent even more billions on it. So is the vicious cycle that hits the most vulnerable. People are dying in a cold forest at the Polish-Belorussian border or are being tortured in an overcrowded camp in Libya, having been detained by the EU-sponsored Libyan Coastguard. Many of them are children. The vulnerable among the vulnerable. Contrary to a common perception, most of migration in Africa is not migration to the North, but intra-African migration. The African states came up with laws and policies on the national and international level that address the situation of migrant children. Some of them may be regarded as best practices. To examine them is one of the volume’s objectives. An effective protection of minors, whose migration status is not regula ted, but whose numbers keep increasing, is an issue in all regions of the globe. Typically, research studies deal with the individual specific rights of the child and the protection of those rights. However, how can a child reap benefits of these rights, if his or her identity is not properly documented? Children in irregular situation are very often invisible to the authorities and find themselves in grey areas of protection because of their undocumented status. The reason for it is a lack of formal registration, birth certificates, passports or other confirmation of their citizenship or statelessness. Accordingly, one the main areas of reflection in the present volume are legal obligations applicable to children lacking proper docu 7 mentation, citizenship or registration and thus being in an ʻirregularʼ situation. While the universal and regional human rights guarantees are the start ing point or the discussions, emphasis is also on the practical side of their implementation at the national level. And while an international consensus that migrating children should be treated as vulnerable group in a need of a special protection is certainly there, offering of such protection in practical terms proves to be difficult. To identify the most important challenges and gaps that exist in this field in practice today is thus a further goal of the research. In pursuance of this goal, the volume presents stud ies addressing international standards concerning registration procedures including their conclusion in a timely manner, transparency and accessi bility, as well as the right to a name and age assessment procedures. Some problems experienced by migrating child in a destination country are caused by practice in his or her state of origin; this include denial of registration and/or certification of births to a certain category of persons particularly for children born to refugees in exile or transit and for ‘illegal’ migrant workers whose parents cannot be able to obtain supporting docu ments required for registration of birth as well as for children with mixed nationality parentage. This documentation inadequacies create fundamen tal problems, such as denial to an individual as a child or difficulties with repatriation and family reunification. Without proper documents, it can also be burdensome to obtain a refugee status and fulfil administrative requirements to receive appropriate funding and care. Due to the limited legal capacity, children constantly suffer the consequences of their parents’ or other adults’ actions. They also have to bear consequences of their parents’ ʻirregularʼ status. This applies in particular to the immigration detention. In the practice, children are still deprived of their liberty due to the irregular migration status of their parents, which is aimed at keeping the familytogether. Even though developments in international case-law require a different perspective to be taken, in such cases, states are more likely to imprison the whole family than to use alternatives for the sake of the best interest of the child. Obviously, registration and documentation issues may not be discussed in isolation from the legal status of children in the context of migration. Therefore, the present volume looks also into some fundamental questi ons. Should the migrant child be treated first of all as a ʻchild,ʼ or rather as an ʻasylum seekerʼ or a ʻmigrant?ʼ What does it mean to have a “the right to be who I am?” What are the limits of the integration in the society of the new country of residence? Does a child have a right not to be 8 Introduction assimilated or integrated? How to adequately address the child’s ʻidentity,ʼ his or her belonging to a certain place, religion or ethnic group? Taking the East African Community member states as a case study, the volume addresses the causes and consequences of child statelessness, and existing challenges in developing a regional response to child statelessness. There is also no adequate international legal framework for protection of refugee children, since the one currently in place falls short of effectively safeguard their right to asylum. Since the main refugee conventions do not provide for a direct protection for some categories of refugee children, for example those displaced due to the climate change, such protection can be achieved by proper application of international human rights standards like the ones included in the Convention on the Rights of the Child or African Charter on the Rights and Welfare on the Child. Joanna Markiewicz-Stanny, Tomasz Milej, Agnieszka Wedeł-Domaradzka 9
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