Caring for unaccompanied minors in transit in Serbia

Abstract

Unaccompanied minors (UAMs) have received significant attention in scholarly debates related to transit migration, child migration and social work. However, less consideration has been given to the social work practice with UAMs during their transit phase. Drawing on qualitative interviews with field practitioners in Belgrade, I explore the interactions between social workers and UAM transit migrants on their way to Western Europe but stopped in Serbia. I analyse the complexity of social work practice with distressed adolescents 'on the move'. I examine practitioners' perceptions about UAMs' trajectories and how UAMs' agency is understood by those caring for them. In doing so, I demonstrate that field practitioners become actors of the transit stage, navigating in their practice between a 'caring' and a 'mobile' approach.