The precarious time of unaccompanied minors in italy between border regimes and the Covid-19 pandemic

This paper explores the experiences of unaccompanied minors (UAMs) in Italy during the Covid-19 pandemic through the concepts of border and precarity. Drawing on a qualitative study, we examine how border regimes shape and constrain the lives of UAMs, whose mobility is rendered irregular and precarious by institutional practices. Their trajectories are structured by what we conceptualize as a “precarity chain”: residence permits depend on securing regular employment, which is necessary for achieving housing autonomy, but in turn requires meeting specific educational criteria. As a result, UAMs envision a fragile future built on a present marked by uncertainty and structural vulnerability, a condition further exacerbated by the global pandemic crisis. We adopt a temporal perspective to analyze the vulnerable transition to adulthood experienced by UAMs, arguing that they experience a “precarious time,” rooted in global mobility inequalities between the Global North and South.