Socioeconomic barriers and educational pathways of unaccompanied foreign minors in Europe's southern border
This article investigates social vulnerability, legal challenges, and migratory experiences of unaccompanied foreign minors entering Europe via Melilla, a Spanish city in northern Africa. A mixed-methods approach integrates statistical analysis and qualitative research, including natural language pr...
| Autores: | , , , |
|---|---|
| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2025 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia |
| Repositorio: | e-spacio. Repositorio Institucional de la UNED |
| Idioma: | inglés |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:e-spacio.uned.es:20.500.14468/31611 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14468/31611 |
| Access Level: | acceso embargado |
| Palabra clave: | 6310 Problemas sociales Child rights Education Migration Mixed methods Social vulnerability Unaccompanied foreign minors |
| Sumario: | This article investigates social vulnerability, legal challenges, and migratory experiences of unaccompanied foreign minors entering Europe via Melilla, a Spanish city in northern Africa. A mixed-methods approach integrates statistical analysis and qualitative research, including natural language processing on 1274 records and 1200 in-depth interviews. The theoretical framework combines social vulnerability theory, the child-rights perspective, and migration decision-making models to clarify how structural (institutional and cultural) and individual (motivations and social networks) factors influence school attendance frequency and continuity, as well as integration in a border environment. Quantitative findings emphasize the key roles of socioeconomic status and educational modality (public vs. Quranic), revealing no significance for nationality. Qualitative evidence underscores linguistic barriers and discrimination, highlighting the necessity of enhanced psychosocial and cultural support. Given these results, the study calls for urgent reforms to child protection policies and border-control strategies, aligning measures with the principle of the child's best interests. |
|---|