Abstract
The accommodation of refugees in many European countries has sparked multiple forms of solidarity (Hamann and Karakayali, 2016). While the majority of the research on solidarity is focused on practices among adults, little is known about the social experiences of solidarity among children, particularly unaccompanied refugee minors (URMs) (Kauhanen and Kaukko, 2020). Studies with URMs reveal that their basic needs are often provided by the asylum systems in Europe. However, their everyday social experiences and the recognition of their voices and agency as unique individuals are rarely acknowledged, leading to encounters of struggle (Korkiamäki and Gilligan, 2020). Same as any other societal group, URMs experience, and exercise solidarity. This project builds on Axel Honneth's critical theory of recognition formed of three patterns of love, rights, and social esteem (Honneth, 1996). Honneth's theory is fundamentally concerned with social inequalities and social justice and is a valuable approach to examining children's social life experiences of emotional, legal, and social recognition (Thomas, 2012). This project adopts a normative-ethical approach through the lens of the new social studies of childhood that situates children as autonomous and active agents, rather than passive victims (Graham et al., 2017). It draws on ethnographic fieldwork and applies participant observation supplemented by interviews to investigate in an in-depth manner how a group of URMs understands, exercises, and receives the different forms of emotional, legal, and social recognition, and to examine how solidarity practices are revealed and where they lack.
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