Forever 17

Coming of Age in the German Asylum System

Ulrike Bialas

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Paperback

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English

University of Chicago Press
26 February 2024

Refugees & political asylum; Migration, immigration & emigration; Ethnic minorities & multicultural studies; Age groups: adolescents; Sociology

Series: Ethnographic Encounters and Discoveries

An exploration of how age affects the experience and life prospects of asylum-seekers in Germany.

Heartbreaking images of children in distress have propelled some of the most urgent calls for action on immigration crises, and that compassion often affects how state asylum policies are structured. In Germany, for example, the immigration system is engineered to protect minors, which leads to unintended consequences for migrants.

In Forever 17, Ulrike Bialas follows young African and Central Asian migrants in Germany as they navigate that system. Without official paperwork or even, in many cases, knowledge of their exact age, migrants must decide how to present their complicated life stories to government officials. They quickly realize that their age can have an outsized effect on the outcome of their cases. A migrant under 18, for example, can’t be deported, but might instead be placed in a youth home, where they will be subject to strict curfew laws. An 18-year-old adult, on the other hand, can get permission to work, but not opportunities to go to school.

Regardless of their age—actual or assumed—migrants face great difficulties. Those classified as minors must live with the psychological burden of being treated like children, while those classified as adults must live without the practical support and legal protections reserved for minors. The significance of age stands in stark contrast to the ambiguities inherent in its determination. Though Germany’s infamous bureaucracy is designed to issue clear statements about refugees and migrants, the truth is often more complicated, and officials are forced to grapple with the difficult implications of their decisions. Ultimately, Bialas shows, policies surrounding asylum seekers fall dramatically short of their humanitarian ideals. Even those policies designed to help the most vulnerable can lead to outcomes that drastically limit the possibilities for migrants in real need of protection and keep them from leading fulfilling lives.

By: Ulrike Bialas
Imprint: University of Chicago Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 18mm
Weight: 367g
ISBN: 9780226830087
ISBN 10: 022683008X
Series: Ethnographic Encounters and Discoveries
Pages: 240
Publication Date: 26 February 2024
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Ulrike Bialas is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Socio-Cultural Diversity at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity.

Reviews for Forever 17: Coming of Age in the German Asylum System

Forever 17 is outstanding, original, impeccably researched, and eminently engaging. With deep ethnographic engagement, humanity, and lucid prose, Bialas brings razor-sharp intellect to demystify the seemingly neutral category of age, debunking the taken-for-granted naturalness of social categories and revealing their complexity, ambiguity, and malleability. This brilliant contribution has enormous theoretical significance and will have a lasting impact on policy debates about the asylum system and beyond. I highly recommend it, especially to anyone open to having their assumptions challenged. -- Cecilia Menjivar, University of California, Los Angeles