Social Science Learning Education Journal 1: 09 septembre (2016). Contents lists available at www.innovativejournal.in SOCIAL SCIENCE LEARNING EDUCATION JOURNAL Homepage: http://innovativejournal.in/sslej/index.php/sslej 27 Unaccompanied foreign minors in Italy: A political and social analysis. Marco Accorinti 1 1 Institute for Research on Population and Social Policies (IRPPS-CNR) Rome, Italy E-Mail: m.accorinti@irpps.cnr.it DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15520/sslej.v1i09.15 This article is a part of a study completed by the Italian National Contact Point of European Migration Network (EMN) which is financially supported by the European Union and the Italian Ministry of the Interior. The EMN has been established via Council Decision 2008/381/EC. The article reflects the personal views of the author and does not involve the EMN northe Ministry of the Interior. Abstract: According to the Decree of the President of the Council of Ministers No 535/1999, Article 1, laying down the “Regulation on the tasks of the Committee for Foreign Minors, in conformity with Articles 33(2) and 33(2-bis) of Legislative Decree No 286 of 25 July 1998”, in Italy ‘unaccompanied foreign minor’ (UAM) refers to “a minor who does not have Italian or other EU citizenship, has not applied for asylum and is, for any reason, within the territory of the State without care or representation by their parents or other adults who are legally responsible for them under existing Italian laws”. This provision was defined as the solution to a social phenomenon that became particularly significant in the country number-wise in the 1990s. Despite the attention of the Government, the actual number of UAMs within the territory of the State is difficult to define, since most of them do not fulfil residence regulations and move considerably within Italian territory. Over the past seven years, the number of UAMs has remained stable with an average of 7/8,000 per year, and a peak of 8,461 in 2013. This figure will be greatly exceeded in 2014. This paper analyses the evolution of the presence of UAMs Italy, their characteristics, their migratory projects and some aspects of the social practices and procedures regarding UAMs in Italy. Keywords Minors, Migrant, Italy, Social Procedures INTRODUCTION Minors who move in search of protection are not a new phenomenon [1]. In the years before the Second World War, the British Government admitted and gave protection to 10,000 Jewish children fleeing the Nazi regimes of Germany, Poland and Austria[2] [3]. However, the phenomenon of constant migration of non-EU unaccompanied minors (UAMs) towards Europe has been systematically described only from the 1980s. What is new compared to the past is that now minors migrate not only to flee wars and persecutions, but also because they have a project of economic migration. The background has also changed, since almost all EU countries have ratified the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child signed in New York. According to some authors, the migratory pattern of a UAM cannot be compared to that of an adult. «The independent migration of children, while having several characteristics and many links in common with that of adults, has emerged as a specific phenomenon all over the world»[4] [5]. According to Liliana Suarez [6], instead, UAMs are involved in a different type of migration; they lack the ability to define a work strategy, even illegal work, and have no collective representation through processes of belonging or cultural implications. A key specificity of the migration of minors is that their rights are recognized at an international level. In the case of adults, reference is made to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This includes the freedom to cross borders, which, to some extent, may be intended as the right to migrate, to leave a country, but not the right to immigrate, to enter a country [7]. The Declaration does not require any country to guarantee access to immigrants or to grant citizenship to foreign residents. By contrast, the universal recognition of the rights of children has led to a legal instrument whereby to a certain extent unaccompanied children have better protection and greater expectations compared to children who are a broad with their families. They could be encouraged to separate from their family members for this very reason [8].