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The experiences and perspectives of alone and unaccompanied refugee children living in Uganda: Evidence from a child-centric approach
Thesis (DPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2022.
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | en_ZA |
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Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University
2022
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| _version_ | 1867614116813733888 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Okimait, David |
| author2 | Pattman, Rob |
| author_browse | Okimait, David Pattman, Rob |
| author_facet | Pattman, Rob Okimait, David |
| author_sort | Okimait, David |
| collection | Thesis |
| dc_rights_str_mv | Stellenbosch University |
| description | Thesis (DPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2022. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/125951 |
| institution | Stellenbosch University (South Africa) |
| language | en_ZA |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:46:55.727Z |
| license_str | Other — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from SUNScholar — Stellenbosch University Repository |
| publishDate | 2022 |
| publishDateRange | 2022 |
| publishDateSort | 2022 |
| publisher | Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| publisherStr | Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | SUNScholar — Stellenbosch University Repository |
| spelling | oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/125951 The experiences and perspectives of alone and unaccompanied refugee children living in Uganda: Evidence from a child-centric approach Okimait, David Pattman, Rob Fakier, Khayaat Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Sociology and Social Anthropology. Children's rights Unaccompanied refugee children -- Uganda Unaccompanied refugee children -- Services for Unaccompanied refugee children -- Moral and ethical aspects Unaccompanied refugee children -- Rehabilitation Unaccompanied refugee children -- Protection UCTD Thesis (DPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2022. ENGLISH ABSTRACT: As a considerably politically stable country in the East African region, Uganda has assumed the role of hosting the largest numbers of refugees from the conflict-affected South Sudan. While the alone and unaccompanied refugee children form part of the refugee situation that Uganda is dealing with, little is known about how such childhoods are lived and experienced. This research plugs this gap by focusing on the lived experiences of the alone and unaccompanied refugee children living in Ugandan refugee settlements. It explores children’s reflections of their earlier and present forced migratory experiences and how they negotiate their everyday lives as boys and girls alone, and/or unaccompanied by adult relatives, within new social spaces. Primarily motivated by the “New” Sociology of Childhood, this ethnographic study adopts the extended case methodology which included engaging with children using participatory and child-centered methodologies. Through these methodologies, this research appreciates and positions the children as experts of their refugee childhoods, irrespective of their being unaccompanied and alone. In so doing, this methodological approach provides a platform through which the alone and unaccompanied refugee children’s voice is heard and listened to. This study also appreciates the significance of refugee children’s protection rights as well as their participation rights. Rather than address the children in this research as objects of pity and in need of protection exclusively, this research also acknowledges the role of agency in childhoods that are constructed as minorities and of inferior status. More specifically, it questions the perceptions which are not often interrogated, including that childhood is a process of becoming that is only determined through socialisation processes. The child-centered methodologies adopted intend to position the child participants as authorities about their refugee childhoods and raise questions about my own positionality as a researcher. This research reveals that the alone refugee child is contextually different from the unaccompanied refugee child; that vulnerability agendas risk silencing the refugee’s children’s voice and participation rights. The vulnerabilities associated with the refugee children in forced migration attract a lot of gatekeeper restriction to accessing the children. The need to balance the implementation of children’s protection and participation rights is pertinent. The ability of children to get past their adversities when faced by difficult and extreme situations arguably overrides the dominant vulnerability lens from which refugee children are generally perceived. Children tend to adapt rapidly to new social environments through relationships with other children and adults who may empower and support them to survive through their challenges. This study shows that pedagogic approaches to understanding children’s worlds need to be adopted, as opposed to dominant research paradigms which have for long overshadowed the children’s voices within childhood discourses in Uganda. This allows for the children to freely open up concerning their vulnerabilities and resilient mechanisms. The findings from this research also provide insights and implications for working with children in forced migratory situations. These include adapting child-centered research approaches which support child agency which empowers the child to construct and present their stories from their own point of view in contexts where they feel safe and validated. AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Uganda het, as polities aansienlik stabiele land in Oos-Afrika, die rol aanvaar om die grootste aantal vlugtelinge uit die konflikgeteisterde Suid-Soedan te huisves. Alhoewel vergeselde vlugtelingkinders deel vorm van die vlugtelingsituasie waarmee Uganda worstel, is daar min bekend oor hoe hierdie kinderjare beleef en ervaar word. Hierdie navorsing vul´n leemte deur te fokus op die geleefde ervarings van die vlugtelingkinders wat alleen en onvergesel in Ugandese vlugtelingnedersettings woon. Dit ondersoek kinders se nabetragtinge oor hulle vroeere en huidige gedwonge trekervarings en hoe hulle hulle alledaagse lewens as seuns en dogters alleen, en/of sonder begeleiding van volwasse familielede, binne nuwe sosiale ruimtes onderhandel. Hierdie etnografiese studie wat hoofsaaklik gemotifeer is deur die “Nuwe" Sosiologie van Kinderjare, gebruik die uitgebreide gevallemotodologie wat direkte betrokkenheid by die kinders insluit deur die gebruik van deelnemende en kindgesentreerde metodologiee. Deur hierdie metodologiee word die kinders as die kundiges van hul vlugtelingkinderjare geposisioneer, ongeag daarvan dat hulle onvergeseld en alleen is. Sodoende skep die metodologiese benadering 'n platvorm waardeur die vlugtelingkinders wat alleen en onvergesel is, se stem gehoor en na geluister word. Die belangrikheid van vlugtelingkinders se deelname- en beskermingsregte word ook deur die studie op prys gestel. In plaas daarvan om kinders in hierdie navorsing uitsluitelik te sien as voorwerpe van jammerte en in nood van beskerming, word die rol van agentskap in die kinderjare van die wie se status gekonstrueer word as minderheid en minderwaardig, erken. Meer spesifiek nog, dit bevraagteken persepsies wat nie dikwels ondersoek word nie, insluitende dat kinderjare 'n proses van wording is wat slegs deur sosialiseringsprosesse bepaal word. Die gebruikte kindgesentreerde metodologiee beoog om die deelnemende kind as gesagsfiguur oor hul kindervlugtelingjare te posisioneer en skep vrae oor my eie posisionaliteit as navorser. Hierdie navorsing onthul dat die alleen vlugtelingkind kontekstueel verskil van die onvergeselde vlugtelingkind; dat kwesbaarheidsagendas die risiko loop om vlugtelingkinders se stem- en reg tot deelname stil te maak. Die kwesbaarhede in verband met vlugtelingkinders in gedwonge migrasie lok baie poortwagter-toegangbeperkings tot die kinders. Die behoefte om balans te vind in die implementering van kinders se regte tot beskerming en hulle reg tot deelname, is relevant. Die vermoe van kinders om hulle teespoed te oorkom wanneer hulle deur moeilike en uiterste omstandighede gekonfronteer word, oorheers stellig die dominante kwetsbaarheidslens waardeur vlugtelingkinders oor die algemeen gesien word. Kinders is geneig om vinnig aan te pas by nuwe sosiale omgewings deur verhoudings met ander kinders en volwassenes wat hulle mag bemagtig en ondersteun om die aanslae op hulle te oorleef. Hierdie studie wys dat pedagogiese benaderings tot die verstaan van die werelde van kinders aanvaar moet word eerder as die dominante benadering wat die kinders se stemme vir so lank binne kinderdiskoerse in Uganda oorskadu het. Dit stel die kinders in staat om vrylik oop te maak ten onpsigte van hulle kwesbaarhede en weerbaarheidsmeganismes. Die bevindinge van hierdie navorsing bevat ook insigte en implikasies vir werk met kinders in gedwonge migrerende situasies. Dit sluit die toepassing van kindgerigte navorsingsbenaderings in wat kinderagentskap ondersteun wat die kind bemagtig om hulle stories vanuit hul eie perspektief te konstrueer en binne kontekste waarin hulle veilig en bevestig voel, aan te bied. Doctoral 2022-11-16T22:34:27Z 2023-01-16T12:42:44Z 2022-11-16T22:34:27Z 2023-01-16T12:42:44Z 2022-12 Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/125951 en_ZA Stellenbosch University xv, 256 pages : illustrations application/pdf Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| spellingShingle | Children's rights Unaccompanied refugee children -- Uganda Unaccompanied refugee children -- Services for Unaccompanied refugee children -- Moral and ethical aspects Unaccompanied refugee children -- Rehabilitation Unaccompanied refugee children -- Protection UCTD Okimait, David The experiences and perspectives of alone and unaccompanied refugee children living in Uganda: Evidence from a child-centric approach |
| title | The experiences and perspectives of alone and unaccompanied refugee children living in Uganda: Evidence from a child-centric approach |
| title_full | The experiences and perspectives of alone and unaccompanied refugee children living in Uganda: Evidence from a child-centric approach |
| title_fullStr | The experiences and perspectives of alone and unaccompanied refugee children living in Uganda: Evidence from a child-centric approach |
| title_full_unstemmed | The experiences and perspectives of alone and unaccompanied refugee children living in Uganda: Evidence from a child-centric approach |
| title_short | The experiences and perspectives of alone and unaccompanied refugee children living in Uganda: Evidence from a child-centric approach |
| title_sort | experiences and perspectives of alone and unaccompanied refugee children living in uganda evidence from a child centric approach |
| topic | Children's rights Unaccompanied refugee children -- Uganda Unaccompanied refugee children -- Services for Unaccompanied refugee children -- Moral and ethical aspects Unaccompanied refugee children -- Rehabilitation Unaccompanied refugee children -- Protection UCTD |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/125951 |
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