Foster Care for Unaccompanied Immigrant and Refugee Children and Youth

Abstract

Unaccompanied children are immigrants under 18 years old without a parent or guardian at their time of arrival to their host countries. In the United States, the numbers of unaccompanied children arriving at the Southern border have steadily increased since 2012, with a record number arriving in 2023. Many unaccompanied children migrate to the US to escape extreme poverty and community violence, or to reunite with family members. Like other displaced populations, unaccompanied children are vulnerable to further violence and exploitation during their migration journeys and after arrival to the US. Yet, this population is uniquely vulnerable given their developmental needs and often complicated health and mental health challenges.The vast majority of unaccompanied children (98.9%) are placed with community sponsors and are essentially lost to follow up. A small number enter foster care under the auspices of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), either through the long term foster care program or the unaccompanied refugee minors program. Theis introduction of the paperpaper provides an overview of the foster care process and policies in place to ensure the safety and wellbeing of unaccompanied children who require foster care in the US. There are sections ofs of paper begins with analysis of key policies impacting unaccompanied children, presents information related to ORR’s foster care system in the US, followed by in-depth analysis of the placement process and well-being outcomes from the existing empirical literature. The paper conclusion includesdes with a discussion of future policy developments to ensure the best interests of unaccompanied children are identified and met in the context of rapidly changing circumstances related to global migration.