The Pursuit of Safety and Freedom

This chapter discusses the fundamental need for safety and freedom. For the period that they are recognized as children, there is arguably some degree of congruence between young people's conceptions of these aspects of their wellbeing and those of welfare and immigration structures, policies, and systems. However, as they turn 18, there is frequently a growing chasm between their own and others' perceptions of the sorts of safety and freedoms most conducive to the lives they want to lead. 'Safe country', for example, means completely different things to diplomats and politicians negotiating returns to Afghanistan or Albania than it does to young people having fled these 'safe countries' and who are then considered deportable. Likewise, relatively expansive ideas of freedom for young people who have spent their formative years in the United Kingdom or Italy are at odds with notions of freedom they can expect if they are no longer able to stay there legally, or are expected to return 'home'. The chapter reveals how young people are willing to take significant yet calculated risks, believing that the lives they can hope for following their migration are infinitely better than those they have left behind.