The Case of Unaccompanied Foreign Minors in Italy. Between Ethnoracial Constraints and Sociocultural Strategies of Resistance

Abstract Unaccompanied foreign minors (UAMs) in Italy occupy a precarious and racialised social position, often framed through logics of control and emergency rather than rights, protection and inclusion. Within a reception system characterised by institutional constraints, legal uncertainty and ethnoracial hierarchies, their educational and biographical trajectories are frequently shaped by limited opportunities and standardised interventions. Drawing on a broader qualitative study based on 52 interviews with UAMs across Italy, this article focuses on three biographical cases to explore how young migrants navigate and respond to such constraints. Adopting the concept of bounded agency, the analysis shows that agency does not emerge in opposition to structural limitations but through their negotiation. The three cases illustrate different configurations of agency, including adaptation, strategic compliance, distancing and resistance, as minors seek to pursue educational aspirations, secure recognition and maintain control over their trajectories. By foregrounding young people’s own perspectives, the article challenges deficit-oriented representations of UAMs and contributes to debates on migration, youth transitions and agency by highlighting the situated and relational character of action under conditions of constraint.