How I met my mother: Kinning and new beginnings between unaccompanied Afghan minors and voluntary Danish guardians

Abstract A relatively large part of the asylum seekers that came to Denmark during ‘the long summer of migration’ in 2015 were under the age of eighteen and travelled without adult relatives. The number of unaccompanied minors from Afghanistan was 844 in 2015 and 527 in 2016. As minors, they receive professional help, care and guidance in the asylum process and are placed in special centres for minors. When they are finally granted temporary residency as refugees, they receive a legal guardian, a volunteer Danish citizen who agrees to help the young refugees establish a new life in the municipality they have been assigned to. Inspired by Signe Howell’s work on transnational adoption in Norwegian families, this article discusses the dynamics of kinning processes where unaccompanied minors and their legal guardians over time develop strong emotional ties. The bumbling transformation of the ‘order of law’ into the ‘order of nature’ not only constitutes a new beginning in family relationships but may also promote a future model for sustainable inclusion of refugees in Denmark.