Skip Navigation


BJSW Advance Access originally published online on August 30, 2005
British Journal of Social Work 2006 36(5):707-721; doi:10.1093/bjsw/bch305
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
36/5/707    most recent
bch305v2
bch305v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (1)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Kohli, R. K. S.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The British Association of Social Workers. All rights reserved.

The Sound Of Silence: Listening to What Unaccompanied Asylum-seeking Children Say and Do Not Say

Ravi K. S. Kohli

Ravi Kohli is Reader in Social Work, Royal Holloway, University of London.

Correspondence to; Ravi K. S. Kohli, Reader in Social Work, Department of Health and Social Care, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX, UK. E-mail: ravi.kohli{at}rhul.ac.uk

Unaccompanied asylum-seeking children are noted at times to be silent or circumspect about their origins and circumstances when faced with authority figures, including social workers. Using some key ideas from ethnography and narrative therapy, this article examines existing literature on silence in the lives of unaccompanied minors, and on how the choices they make about talking and not talking can hinder or facilitate resettlement. It then describes a small research study within which interviews were undertaken with local authority social workers to elicit their responses to unaccompanied minors in such circumstances. These revealed that practitioners understood the children’s silence in varied ways, and that they could be practically helpful, therapeutically minded and reliable companions, accompanying the young people towards resettlement, with or without knowing the detailed ‘truth’ about their past

Keywords: Unaccompanied asylum seeking children, refugee children, silence and secrets


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Br J Soc WorkHome page
E. Chase
Agency and Silence: Young People Seeking Asylum Alone in the UK
Br. J. Soc. Work, September 22, 2009; (2009) bcp103v1.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Br J Soc WorkHome page
A. McLeod
'A Friend and an Equal': Do Young People in Care Seek the Impossible from their Social Workers?
Br. J. Soc. Work, November 24, 2008; (2008) bcn143v1.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Br J Soc WorkHome page
C. Bernard and A. Gupta
Black African Children and the Child Protection System
Br. J. Soc. Work, April 1, 2008; 38(3): 476 - 492.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.