Asylum-seeking and refugee children are considered vulnerable because of their developmental immaturity and physical disability (Djampour, 2018). In the cases of unaccompanied minors, it is exacerbated by their lack of parental care (Eide, 2020; Engebrigtsen, 2020). The problematic nature of the flight from wars, hunger, and oppression, compounded with a possible susceptibility and actual exposure to other people’s abuse, violence, or other use of force, complicates their vulnerability and our understanding of fragility. On arrival in host nations, the definition of vulnerability that warrants who can be included is narrowly defined and re-defined, depending on what categories of migrants are given priority (Kalisha, 2023), for example, depending on which country is most ravaged by war. In Norwegian policy frameworks, education is offered as a right for all as long as the child is guaranteed to stay at least for 3 months.

However, asylum-seeking children do not have the same rights since many enter the country already at an age beyond the primary education deemed free for all, that is, upper secondary school. Additionally, there exist varied school experiences among the asylum-seekers, some being illiterate while others have completed high school. As such, placement connected to age becomes problematic as many 15-18-year-olds are placed in high schools without any prior experience in Norway- (Kalisha & Saevi, 2020; Kalisha & Sævi, 2021). The lack of clear structures on who is responsible for their education makes it difficult to acquire placement in the first place. Educating them is left to volunteers’ and county governors’ discretion. This means their right to education does not depend on their inherent vulnerability. Arguably, vulnerability, especially one linked to trauma, cannot be diagnosed while still in the asylum-seeking phase. Is it possible to still think of vulnerability as an inevitable human condition that remains a challenge to education and not a problem to be solved? Given that rights have to be enforced by the nation-state and that unaccompanied minors are yet to be part of the nation, the United Nations Higher Commissioner for Refugees cannot enforce the said right to education until one is categorized as a refugee. The right to education and other rights due to asylum seekers tend to be suspended, and they receive the bare minimum while waiting for asylum. What would be the purpose of educating them?

In this paper, I look at vulnerability as a pedagogical challenge that does not need to be problematized, especially for children in forced migration. Instead, their vulnerability should be seen as something we constantly work with within education. Thinking of vulnerability this way juxtaposes it against rights due to them as human beings. Yet the young asylum-seekers, mainly from non-western countries, find themselves in an in-between position, a liminal and a gray area regarding their rights, especially when they keep changing in law. I question the positioning of vulnerability as a reason to grant residency while at the same time trivializing their other rights, like the right to education. 

This study employs both phenomenology and document analysis to bolster its methodological approach. Initially, I undertake a phenomenological exploration of vulnerability as an inherent characteristic of migration. Subsequently, I probe into the practical consequences of alterations in migration legislation, especially concerning children seeking asylum, and scrutinize how these alterations impinge on their rights. Ultimately, I analyze whether it is feasible to disregard the direct impact of legal modifications on these children’s rights and still educate them in their vulnerability.

This paper will contribute to the growing literature on children's rights as human beings, more specifically, asylum-seeking children and what should be the purpose of educating them.

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