Unaccompanied Refugee Youth: Their Migration, Maturity, and Best Interests

In this Major Research Paper (MRP), I address the issue of unaccompanied refugee minors (URMs) who are adolescents between the ages of 14 and 18. Canada’s immigration and refugee board (IRB) and immigration officials rely on the convention on the rights of the child (CRC) as well as Canadian guidelines pertaining to age and, to a lesser degree, competence are used as the two main indicators of the child's capacity to be mature, reasonable, and independent before, during, and after their migration process. This can result in URMs being assessed as incompetent and incapable. It is not the purpose to argue that URMs should not be given all the rights of children, as they are minors. Rather, I argue that specific Articles of the UNHCR’s Convention on the Rights of the Child limit the recognition of the decision-making ability of unaccompanied refugees in their process of development into adulthood by ignoring the way their migration experiences speed and enhance their maturation. Therefore, I conclude that the maturity and capability of URMs should be properly assessed in a more sophisticated process, one to be developed through further research, a process that will afford them an opportunity to make clear what they deem best for themselves and why, rather than one that assigns them to the protocols appropriate for “children”.