Unaccompanied Migrant Minors

Children in foster care have the odds stacked against them as they transition into adulthood. Lacking the financial and moral support that most Canadian children take for granted, they struggle to cope with the challenges of adult life. As a result, children in foster care are far less likely to graduate from high school than the average Canadian and have a much greater likelihood of suffering from mental health problems. Chronic unemployment, unplanned parenthood, homelessness, and incarceration are just some of the problems they encounter, with significant social and economic costs as a result.

Child welfare agencies throughout the country work hard to ensure that the children’s basic needs are met while they are living in the care of the state. However, these agencies lack the resources necessary to help these children succeed as they “age out” of care. This briefing argues that there is both a humanitarian and a compelling economic case for action.

Success For All: Investing in the Future of Canadian Children in Care, (The Conference Board of Canada, April 2014)
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What Good Data Mean for Black Youth in Foster Care (The Globe and Mail, July 2018)

Protect Privacy of Foster Children (Toronto Star, July 2018)

Forcing Faith-Based Agencies Out of the System is a Disservice to Women (The Hill, July 2018)

Homeless Child Welfare Wards (Winnipeg Sun, July 2018)

Children Committing Serious Crimes Just to Find Something to Eat (AU News, July 2018)

Abuse, Neglect, and a System that Failed: The Tragic Lives of the Hart Children. Programs designed to protect children ushered six siblings to their deaths — and no one has been held accountable since their adoptive mother drove them off a cliff (Washington Post, July 2018)

How Toronto’s New Courthouse Could Jeopardize Fragile Youth Services (The Lawyers Daily, June 2018)

B.C. Closes Third Group Home for Children Over Staff-Behaviour Concerns (Globe and Mail, June 2018)

B.C. Child Representative Has Grave Concerns About Oversight of Group Homes (National Post, June 2018)

Separated Migrant Children in Foster Care Are Now in Limbo After Trump’s Immigration Order (TIME, June 2018)

Separations End, but Foster Care, Shelters Remain Overwhelmed (Boston Globe, June 2018)

More Separated Migrant Kids Arrive at Foster Care in Harlem (NY Post, June 2018)

Child-Welfare Experts Alarmed by Family Separation at U.S. Boarder (CTV News, June 2018)

Separating Children from Parents at the Boarder Causes Lifelong Damage (Harvard Medical School, June 2018)

I’m a Judge who Decides if Children Should be Separated from Abusive Parents. Here’s How Trump’s Immigration Policy Should Change (TIME, June 2018)

One Million Missing: Undercount of Young Kids in 2020 Census Threatens Gains (The Annie E. Casey Foundation, June 2018)

Watch: Funding Evidence-Based Programs in Child Welfare with the Family First Act (The Annie E. Casey Foundation, June 2018)

Report shows 23 deaths in Utah child welfare cases (Salt Lake Tribute, June 2018)

Number of Alberta Child Welfare Deaths Increased Last Year (Edmonton Journal, June 2018)

N.W.T. Government Faces Lawsuit Over Allegations it Failed to Protect Children from Sexual Abuse (CBC News, June 2018)

Babies Born to Teen Mothers in Manitoba’s Child Welfare System More Likely to be Placed in Care (The Globe and Mail, May 2018)

We’re Separating Babies from Their Teenage Mothers in Care, Perpetuating a Never-ending Cycle (CBC News, May 2018)

Foster Families Badly Needed Across the Province for Children and Youth with Complex Needs (CBC News, May 2018)

May is National Foster Care Month. These Types of Things Tend to Come and go, but it Urgently Deserves Attention (National Review, May 2018)

Report Explores How Kids Leave Foster Care (The Annie E. Casey Foundation, February 2018)

Canada lags when it comes to child hunger, violence: UNICEF ranking (CBC, July 2017)

Report shines light on poverty’s role on kids in CAS system (Toronto Star, August 2016)

Jury in Jeffrey Baldwin inquest puts onus for child welfare on the community (Metro News, February, 2014)

Inquest hears 103 recommendations to prevent another case like starved, neglected Jeffrey Baldwin (National Post, February 2014)

Children In Poorest Neighborhoods Most Vulnerable To Fatal Child Abuse (Huffington Post, April 2013)

UNICEF Child Well-Being Index: Canada Ranked 17th Out Of 29 Wealthy Nations (Huffington Post, 2013)

Adoption Attitudes Survey (Dave Thomas Foundation, 2013)

Opinion: Canada has a choice to make in how it responds to a global refugee crisis (June 4, 2022)

Ukraine’s Child Refugee Crisis Is Reaching Devastating New Heights (March 8, 2022)

Injured, alone and destined for a Russian orphanage (April 17, 2022)

How Ukraine’s war revealed the world’s selective empathy on refugees (May 10, 2022)

Missing foster children are often gone for over a month, report says (May 5, 2023)

Why the Children of Immigrants Are the Ones Getting Ahead in America (June 1, 2022)

This is what happens to child migrants found alone at the border, from the moment they cross into the US until age 18 (July 23, 2021)

The Humanitarian Challenge of Unaccompanied Minors at the Border (March 23, 2021)

U.S. Detention of Child Migrants (December 2, 2021)

Almost 19,000 Migrant Children Stopped At U.S. Border in March, Most Ever In A Month (April 8, 2021)

Kids in care at high risk of trouble with the law: UM study (June 2, 2020)

“Inhumane and degrading”: How Canada’s Immigration Policies Fail Child Refugees (November 21, 2021)

Unaccompanied minors’ needs and the child welfare response (Sept 22, 2020)

Systematic review of former unaccompanied immigrant minors’ access to healthcare services in the United States (September 28, 2021)

Unaccompanied and Separated Children (UASC)

Unaccompanied Minors, the Border Situation, and Public Opinion (March 23, 2021)

Migrant encounters at U.S.-Mexico border are at a 21-year high (August 13, 2021)

Increasing Numbers of Unaccompanied Alien Children at the Southwest Border (August 5, 2021)

U.S. shelters received a record 122,000 unaccompanied migrant children in 2021 (December 23, 2021)

Latest UC Data – FY2021

Facts and figures: Deportations of unaccompanied migrant children by the USA and Mexico (June 11, 2021)

Children in migrationasylum applicants (June 2021)

The Facts About Unaccompanied Children

Biden administration spending $60 million per week to shelter unaccompanied minors (April 9, 2021)

Immigration 101: Top 10 Facts About Unaccompanied Migrant Children (March 6, 2021)

Children on the Run

Fact Sheet: Unaccompanied Migrant Children (UACs (Nov 2, 2021)

Unaccompanied Alien Children: An Overview (September 1, 2021)

In 2020, the number of international migrants reached 281 million; 36 million of them were children (April 2021)

Child and young migrants (May 6, 2021)

Minor Children Applying for Asylum By Themselves

Unaccompanied Children at the United States Border, a Human Rights Crisis that can be Addressed with Policy Change (August 20, 2018)

Since 2005, USCRI has been providing critically needed social services to unaccompanied migrant children.

Unaccompanied alien children apprehensions by the U.S. border patrol from 2010 to 2020

The Surge of Unaccompanied Children from Central America ( July 24, 2014)

Migrant Minors: FAQS, Facts, and Statistics (February 28, 2017)

N.W.T. Advocates Offer Remedies for an Ailing Child Welfare System (September 2019)

Child Welfare Newborn ‘Birth Alerts’ Under Review in Manitoba (September 2019)

Nova Scotia’s Child Welfare Services are in Urgent Need of More Funding (September 2019)

The Continuing Need to Re-envision Foster Care in America (September 2019)

B.C. Ends Controversial Birth Alert System That Affected Indigenous Mothers Disproportionately (September 2019)

B.C Bans ‘Birth Alerts’, Promises More Family Supports in Bid to End Apprehensions of Newborns (September 2019)

B.C. Ends Birth Alerts but Families Question What it Means for Babies Already in Care (September 2019)

No Plan in Place to Return Babies Already Seized Through Controversial Birth Alerts in B.C. (September 2019)

Keeping Kids in Families (The Annie E. Casey Foundation, April 2019)

The Outdated Way We Think About Relationships in Child Welfare (Chronicle of Social Change, March 2019)

Infants and Toddlers are More Likely Than Older Children to Enter Foster Care Because of Neglect and Parental Drug Abuse (Child Trends, March 2019)

Disconnected: Stories of the NWT Foster Care System (APTN News, December 2018)

She Ran Away From Foster Care. She Ended Up in Handcuffs and Leg Irons (The New York Times, December 2018)

In a Struggling Foster Care System, Hotels Serve as a Makeshift Foster Home for Local Kids (Inlander, December 2018)

‘Disastrous for Children’: 100 Foster Kids in King County Stayed in Hotels, Report Says (Seattle Times, November 2018)

Why Washington Foster Kids are Sleeping in Hotels (KUOW, November 2018)

Children’s Advocate Investigates 70 Deaths of Youth in Manitoba, Annual Report Says (CBC News, November 2018)

Education Key to Success for Youth in Foster Care (The Star, October 2018)

A Decade After Saying ‘Sorry’, a New Generation is Struggling (Canberra Times, September 2018)