Learning, Agency and Freedom; in the lives of the Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Youth in Turkey

The thesis will look at the educational pathways of young unaccompanied asylum seekers aged between 14 and 21, a group whose access to education is frequently described as at-risk. Starting from the premise that with the increasing force of globalisation the international mobility and precarity of young people is also bound to grow, strategies of unaccompanied refugee youth in two different national settings will be explored as they deploy to enhance their educational possibilities. By focusing on Switzerland (sub-project A) and Turkey (sub-project B), two countries with high numbers of unaccompanied minors but very different institutional frameworks and responses, insights will be gained into how young people navigate their ways through landscapes of extreme uncertainty and change. Based on two in-depth ethnographic studies, the goal of the SNF funded project is to come to a better understanding of how different legal, political and educational frameworks restrict or enhance young people’s educational opportunities.