Over the past decade, the arrival and protection of unaccompanied minors have become central concerns within European migration and asylum policies. In 2024, 235000 first-time asylum applicants in the European Union were under 18 (26% of the total), including approximately 35000 unaccompanied minors seeking international protection (Eurostat, 2026). These flows are driven by persistent geopolitical instability, economic inequalities, and environmental crises, which disproportionately affect children and adolescents and expose unaccompanied minors to increased risks of marginalisation, exploitation, and rights violations. Italy plays a key role in European child migration dynamics as one of the major countries of arrival and reception. As of mid-2025, more than 16000 unaccompanied foreign minors were registered, predominantly male and aged 16–17, with Egypt, Ukraine, Gambia, Tunisia, and Guinea among the main countries of origin (Ministero del Lavoro, 2026).
These trends highlight ongoing pressures on reception systems and long-term integration pathways. In Italy, unaccompanied minors are supported through a dedicated child-protection framework established by Law 47/2017, which reaffirms the principle of the best interests of the child, prohibits pushbacks at the border, and promotes family foster care as a preferred solution alongside community-based reception, while ensuring access to accommodation, education, healthcare, legal guardianship, and socio-educational services. While this reception system is relatively well consolidated, its practical implementation remains fragmented, as a wide range of public and private actors operate at the local level using heterogeneous and often poorly coordinated intervention models, including therapeutic/clinical approaches and community-based, relational practices (Alpini et al., 2025). Such fragmentation risks weakening the continuity of educational and protection pathways, particularly beyond the initial phases of reception.
Specifically, significant challenges persist in supporting young people during the transition to legal adulthood, especially with regard to social integration and the development of autonomy. This transition is marked by a sudden loss of protection measures and rights at the age of 18, making access to stable legal status, employment, housing, and social support especially precarious. Existing research largely focus on minors’ conditions at the time of placement within reception systems, while the post-reception phase remains largely unexplored, despite being equally crucial for assessing the effectiveness of existing measures (Agostinetto et al., 2025). Indeed, a recent systematic scoping review conducted at the European level identified a limited number of empirical studies addressing this phase, showing a significant lack of longitudinal and qualitative research and an almost complete absence of young people’s own voices.
From a pedagogical and intercultural perspective, this gap calls for a critical engagement with the normative and institutional frameworks shaping reception and educational practices. The literature highlights several recurring dimensions that are central to the transition to adulthood of unaccompanied minors, including access to the labour market, legal status regularisation, participation in educational and vocational pathways, as well as formal and informal social support networks. However, studies warn against overly functionalist and employment-centred approaches that risk narrowing young people’s life projects and reproducing forms of social and occupational segregation. Instead, an intercultural pedagogical approach emphasises the need to recognise unaccompanied minors primarily as adolescents, whose developmental, emotional, and relational needs must be addressed alongside demands for autonomy and self-sufficiency.
Addressing this theoretical and empirical gap, the project presented in this abstract adopts a longitudinal qualitative research design to explore in depth the lived experiences, life paths, and meaning-making processes of young people navigating the post-reception phase after unaccompanied migration. By focusing on the “after” of the reception system, the study aims to contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of this particularly delicate stage of integration and to inform pedagogically grounded and more coherent support practices for the transition to adulthood.

The project focuses on the post-reception phase and involves a selected group of unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors (UAMs; N=8, males) residing in local reception facilities and approaching discharge. Participants are selected based on the following criteria: (a) UAM status with a migratory background; (b) within six months of discharge from care; and (c) voluntary participation. From the outset, the study is designed to ensure relational continuity through the involvement of a single researcher who follows all participants throughout the research process. This one-to-one and researcher-consistent approach aims to establish a stable and recognisable relational framework in which the aims of the study and the researcher’s role are made explicit and continuously negotiated. The use of a small sample reflects a methodological priority placed on depth, continuity, and relational intensity rather than breadth, enabling the longitudinal exploration of participants’ personal and occupational pathways following the end of residential care. The initial phase of the project prioritises the construction of a stable working alliance with participants, considered essential for maintaining contact over time. This relational design is expected to generate preliminary longitudinal evidence on former UAMs’ trajectories over approximately 12 months, with biannual follow-ups, supporting an assessment of reception measures and informing the development of more targeted support practices. The study adopts relational and narrative-based research instruments designed to foster trust, continuity, and engagement in contexts characterised by vulnerability and relational asymmetry. The primary instrument consists of tailored, co-constructed personal diaries developed jointly by the researcher and each participant within a one-to-one relational setting. These diaries function as multimodal narrative tools integrating written reflections, drawings, photographs, and other expressive materials according to participants’ preferences. Narrative co-construction is grounded in a well-established clinical and research tradition spanning psychodynamic and constructivist approaches (Mellado et al., 2024), which conceptualise identity development as closely linked to autobiographical meaning-making. Empirical research indicates that shared narrative practices enhance empathy, trust, engagement, and meaning-making processes among adolescents (McAdams & McLean, 2013). Within the diaries, semi-structured questions are used to promote progressive levels of self-disclosure and reflection on identity, aspirations, values, fears, and significant life experiences. The procedure includes an initial meeting with educators to present the project and emphasise voluntary participation, followed by individual meetings to obtain informed consent and assess readiness for engagement. This participant-centred design ensures ethical sensitivity while generating qualitative material suitable for systematic analysis and, with further consent, dissemination and training purposes.

The primary contribution of the project lies in generating original, context-sensitive qualitative knowledge on what happens to unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors (UAMs) after their exit from reception facilities and on the needs that emerge during the post-reception phase. By documenting former UAMs’ experiences, aspirations, and perceived resources over time, the study aims to contribute to a clearer understanding of their personal, social, and socio-labour pathways during the transition to adulthood, an area that remains largely unexplored in the Italian context. This contribution is enabled by the longitudinal use of co-constructed, multimodal, and multilingual personal diaries, which allow for the documentation of changes and continuities in participants’ self-representations over time. Beyond their role as data collection tools, the diaries—together with the establishment of an empathic, trust-based relationship—function as relational instruments that support sustained engagement and continuity after the end of residential care. The possibility of using participants’ mother tongues, with meanings explored and translated collaboratively, further facilitates access to subjective experiences that might otherwise remain inaccessible. At a broader level, the knowledge generated through this study is expected to have implications for local governance practices. By highlighting strengths and gaps in coordination among educational, social, health, and labour-market services, the project may support more cohesive service provision and strengthen continuity of care and opportunities for socio-labour integration beyond the reception phase. Although grounded in the Padua area, the project represents a novel contribution within the Italian context by systematically addressing post-reception trajectories. At the time of writing, the first phase of data collection has been completed. The research design combines ongoing narrative diaries with semi-structured interviews to further explore emerging themes, while the researcher maintains an active dialogue with participants to support longitudinal engagement. A first consolidated set of qualitative data is expected by August.

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