To Exclude or Protect: Unaccompanied Minors and the Failures of Immigration Law

This article reviews research on unaccompanied minors—children under 18 who migrate alone and without legal authorization—who are subject to contradictory host country governance regimes that both exclude and protect them. I juxtapose legal scholarship examining the contradictory laws governing unaccompanied minors with sociolegal research that examines the gaps between the law in books and the law in action. The first part reviews scholarship examining legal provisions vis-à-vis unaccompanied minors, their inherent contradictions, and how these vary across contexts. I discuss debates on the intersection of age and migration, the best interests principle, and how refugee law falls short in protecting children. I next compare governance regimes in the European Union and United States. The second part shifts focus to the implementation of law by discussing how legal advocates and unaccompanied children engage with, contest, and reproduce ambivalent legal regimes. I end by suggesting avenues for future research.