In England, unaccompanied child migrants who seek asylum are the responsibility of the local state, who acts as their ‘corporate parent’. While these young people are ostensibly supported by children’s services in keeping with responsibilities under the Children’s Act 1989, in comparison to ‘local’ children unaccompanied children are disproportionately placed in unregulated, outsourced accommodation. Drawing on data from the Children Caring on the Move research project – including over 180 interviews with unaccompanied young people, frontline workers, accommodation owners and policy makers – I argue that this part of the care system can be understood as a double move of enclosure. First, I argue that claims about the unpredictability of arrivals of unaccompanied children are used as a rationale for the marketisation of children’s services, part of an enclosure of what was previously public. Second, I point to the enclosure, and commodification, of unaccompanied children themselves. They not only become a source of profit in this enclosed sector through their statuses as ‘child’ and ‘unaccompanied migrant’, but the limited forms of support provided in outsourced and unregulated provision make it more difficult for many to regularise their status before being subject to enforced destitution or deportability as non-citizen adults. The article contributes to efforts to theorise contemporary processes of enclosure in racial capitalism, adds to understandings of the UK’s ‘asylum market’ which to date has focused almost primarily on adult or family migrants, and sheds new light on causalities of care in the UK’s marketised and bordered children’s services.

中文翻译：

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无人陪伴儿童移徙的商品化：双重围困

在英格兰，寻求庇护的无人陪伴儿童移民是当地政府的责任，当地政府充当他们的“企业家长”。虽然这些年轻人表面上得到儿童服务机构的支持，以履行 1989 年《儿童法》规定的责任，但与“当地”儿童相比，无人陪伴的儿童不成比例地被安置在不受监管的外包住宿中。根据“流动儿童照料”研究项目的数据——包括对无人陪伴的年轻人、一线工人、住宿业主和政策制定者的 180 多次访谈——我认为，这部分照料系统可以理解为双重封闭搬迁。首先，我认为，关于无人陪伴儿童抵达的不可预测性的说法被用作儿童服务市场化的理由，这是对以前公开的服务的一部分。其次，我指出了对无人陪伴儿童本身的圈养和商品化。他们不仅通过“儿童”和“无人陪伴移民”的身份成为这个封闭部门的利润来源，而且外包和不受监管的服务提供的支持形式有限，使许多人在受到影响之前更难调整自己的身份强迫非公民成年人陷入贫困或被驱逐出境。这篇文章有助于对当代种族资本主义圈地进程进行理论化，增加了对英国“庇护市场”的理解，迄今为止，英国“庇护市场”几乎主要关注成年或家庭移民，并为英国市场化护理中的护理因果关系提供了新的线索。和边境儿童服务。