Merging Social Work and Social Advocacy in Response to the Plight of Un

Merging tender Work and Social Advocacy in Response to the Plight of Unaccompanied Child Refugees in the coupled StatesIntroduction More than any country in the universe, the unite States has been a haven for refugees fleeing religious and political persecution in their home countries. tie in forever to the phrase inscribed on the Statue of Liberty, Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled large number yearning to breathe free, the United States, in the eyes of persecuted people passim the world, has been idealized as a land of freedom and new beginnings. However, the ever-changing face of refugees seeking asylum in the United States in the sometime(prenominal) several decades has exposed stark gaps in the good, administrative, and social treatment of refugees. The mass of refugees in the early part of the twentieth century fled as families or in large groups. Recently, however, increasing numbers of children argon fleeing their home countries alone. Currently, crush es timates are that over one-half of the worlds refugee population, or over 20 million, are children.1 Human Rights Watch, a watchdog non-governmental organization, estimated that in 1990 over 8,500 children, 70 percent of whom were unaccompanied, reached United States shores.2 While this figure is small relative to the total world estimate of child refugees, the lack of systemic or comprehensive United States governmental policies specifically geared toward assessing the asylum claims of children and their circumstances has become increasingly problematic. Continued human rights violations in China, worldwide genocide - as seen in Bosnia in the early 1990s and currently in Kosovo - and persistent accomplished wars in Sri Lanka and parts of Africa, have resulted in an increase of t... ...vler Center works with children and braggys who are victims of torture, while a number of agencies, such as the Bosnian Refugee Center, provide support for specific ethnic groups. In terms o f legal advocacy, the Midwest Immigrants Human Rights Center provides pro bono legal representation for adult and children asylum seekers. References Bhabha, J., & Young, W. (1998) Through A Childs Eyes Protecting the Most under fire(predicate) Asylum Seekers. Interpreter Releases 75 (21), pp. 757-791.Center for the Study of Human Rights, capital of South Carolina University. (1994) Twenty-five Human Rights Documents. refreshing York Columbia University.Ehrenreich, R. (1997) Slipping Through the Cracks. New York Human Rights Watch.Immigration and Naturalization Service, United States Department of Justice. (1998) Guidelines for Childrens Asylum Claims. (File great hundred/11.26).