Corona Maioli Susanna, Burgess Rochelle A
UCL Institute for Global Health, 30 Guilford Street, London WC1N 1EH, United Kingdom.
Health Policy Plan. 2025 Aug 18;40(7):719-726. doi: 10.1093/heapol/czaf037.
Mexico is the world's largest global migration corridor and in the last decade there has been an increase in forced migration of families, women, and unaccompanied children and adolescents. The latter population requires specific policy and implementation frameworks due to increased vulnerability related to their age, gender, and unaccompanied status, which can seriously impact their long-term health and wellbeing. However, globally and in Mexico there are reports of lack of appropriate implementation of protection measures. Thus, this article aims to explore the perspectives of frontline workers who conduct daily work with unaccompanied migrant youth. Through 29 semi-structured interviews conducted with different migration workers, mostly based in Mexico, in summer 2021, we found that possibilities for advancing child rights exist even with a scarcity of resources. In fact, although workers highlighted a context of lack of resources, partly determined by a political vision that does not recognize humanity as a priority, specific skills and knowledge were identified for fostering migrant youth resilience. Knowledge such as clear best interests of the child guidelines, and skills such as empathy, adaptation, and recognition of agency of young people enabled some workers to provide appropriate safeguarding. However, we highlight how the contextual scarcity of services overruns individual worker capacities, leading to a lack of appropriate safeguarding overall. Based on worker perspectives, we provide recommendations for appropriate policy implementation. Results are reported according to Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research guidelines.
墨西哥是全球最大的移民通道，在过去十年中，家庭、妇女以及无人陪伴的儿童和青少年的被迫移民有所增加。由于年龄、性别以及无人陪伴的身份导致这部分人群更加脆弱，这可能严重影响他们的长期健康和福祉，因此需要特定的政策和实施框架。然而，在全球范围内以及在墨西哥，都有报告称保护措施缺乏适当的实施。因此，本文旨在探讨与无人陪伴的移民青年开展日常工作的一线工作者的观点。通过2021年夏天对主要来自墨西哥的不同移民工作者进行的29次半结构化访谈，我们发现，即使资源匮乏，推进儿童权利的可能性依然存在。事实上，尽管工作者们强调了资源匮乏的情况，这在一定程度上是由一种不将人性视为优先事项的政治观念所决定的，但他们也确定了一些培养移民青年复原力的特定技能和知识。诸如明确的儿童最大利益准则等知识，以及同理心、适应能力和认可年轻人的能动性等技能，使一些工作者能够提供适当的保障。然而，我们强调，服务的实际匮乏超出了个体工作者的能力，导致总体上缺乏适当的保障。基于工作者的观点，我们提出了适当政策实施的建议。结果是根据《定性研究报告统一准则》报告的。
