Social workers are confronted with a contradictory task: that of acting as state parents for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, in an era of hostile migration policies and austerity. Mobilizing Young’s (2006) concept of ‘responsibility’, we ask: how is state parental responsibility towards unaccompanied minors given meaning, and with what consequences, for both frontline workers and unaccompanied minors alike? Drawing on interviews with frontline workers and unaccompanied minors in the United Kingdom (n = 107), we delineate three modes through which responsibility operates: namely outcomes, capacity and morality. We argue that the underlying logic of responsibility shifts the blame from sociopolitical structures to migrant children themselves, with crucial consequences for questions of social justice.

中文翻译：

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无处的公民？英国无人陪伴移民儿童的国家父母责任悖论

社会工作者面临着一个矛盾的任务：在一个充满敌意的移民政策和紧缩政策的时代，充当无人陪伴的寻求庇护儿童的国家父母。动员在 Young (2006) 的“责任”概念中，我们问：对于一线工人和无人陪伴的未成年人，国家对无人陪伴的未成年人的父母责任如何被赋予意义，以及会产生什么后果？通过对英国一线工人和无人陪伴的未成年人（n = 107）的采访，我们描绘了责任运作的三种模式：即结果、能力和道德。我们认为，责任的潜在逻辑将责任从社会政治结构转移到移民儿童身上，这对社会正义问题产生了至关重要的影响。