“Are my needs heard?” A qualitative study on the psychosocial needs of unaccompanied minors in Switzerland
Author(s): Anaïs Burkhart, Rachel Fasel, Sylvain Rey, Margareta Jelić, Dinka Čorkalo Biruški, Nikolina Stanković, Antonija Vrdoljak, Solenne Decollogny, Ana Domingues-Mendonça, Aurélie Faivre, Baptiste Jobin, Floriane Petit, Margaux Romerio, Garance Rothenbuehler, Laure-Anne Russo, Ana Valle, Yordanos Teklu, Kaspar Burger, Isabelle Csupor, Fréderic Darbellay, N’Dri Paul Konan, Fabrizio Butera
Source: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-026-09063-z
Abstract
Since the 2015 migration crisis in Europe, very few studies have focused on the actual needs of UnAccompanied Minors (UAM); top-down policies have been issued, but very little voice has been granted to the minors directly. The current qualitative study provides an in-depth analysis of UAM’s psychosocial needs drawing from a corpus that gathered semi-structured interviews with 49 UAM living in Switzerland (46 male and 3 female). A thematic content analysis followed a hybrid deductive/inductive approach. Results revealed nine psychosocial needs: (1) Social support, (2) Security, (3) Culture, (4) Education, (5) Work, (6) Leisure activities, (7) Coping with idle time (8) Medical care and (9) Living standards. UAM also emphasized the inequalities in access to the structures and relations that may help in the fulfilment of the nine needs. We discuss the importance of focusing on UAM’s needs in order to tailor adapted social support practices.
Keywords: Children’s voice in research, Integration, Psychosocial needs, Unaccompanied minors, Well-being