ABSTRACT
Asylum-seeking children are considered vulnerable because they are immature physically and mentally and in need of constant help and care. At the point of encounter with asylum-seeking children, their vulnerability directs us to their developmental status and fragility, stressing the need for protection and inclusion. However, 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. Unaccompanied children's vulnerability is assessed depending on what they need upon entry, whether they need special procedural guarantees or special reception needs. As one later realizes, the latter category of special reception needs is emphasized because of its definition of vulnerability in terms of physical or medical disability. What is left out and not considered within pedagogical circles is their traumatic experiences and the exposure to injustices during flight. Based on interviews with unaccompanied children on the west coast of Norway, I describe and interpret lived experiences of being an unaccompanied child exposed to trauma and other troubling events before and during their flight to Norway. The continental phenomenology of practice methodology inspires this chapter. I explore what it might mean to encounter and take responsibility for the lone traveling children during the flight and upon arrival in Norway. What does it mean to see their vulnerability and trauma pedagogically?
