Child [Un]Friendly Border Control: A Criminological Analysis of Young Asylum Seeker’s Migration and Immigration Detention Experiences

Abstract

Globalization has expanded the travelling privileges of certain populations (namely for those in the West) while it has simultaneously resulted in restrictions on the movement of the more racialized and impoverished populations. The economically disadvantaged groups are subjected to strict border control policies such as stringent visa requirements (to stop them before they migrate), border infrastructure (to curb their mobility while they are travelling across international borders), and detention policies (after they arrive in the host country). The corresponding challenges are particularly taxing and traumatic for vulnerable populations, especially minors. Using qualitative methodology, this research explores the interview-based accounts of nine asylum-seeking children and young adults regarding their migration experiences with border control policies (during their migration) and administrative detention procedures in Canada. Drawing on Criminology of Mobility as a conceptual framework, the findings of this study demonstrate that border infrastructure endangers young asylum seekers’ lives as it compels them to pursue more precarious means, such as using the services of human smugglers or crossing international borders from isolated and dangerous crossing points. The findings of this research also suggest that juvenile asylum seekers may be experiencing border control policies and immigration detention more negatively because of their age-related vulnerabilities.