This paper considers what safety, belonging and success mean to children and young people who seek asylum alone within richer nations. These three elements are conceptualised, taking account of journeys away from their countries of origin towards a sense of ‘home’ in a new country. The conceptual map is then used to frame existing research to establish what is known, and what needs to be further examined in understanding the ways in which the three elements are manifest when permanent resettlement, temporary admission and enforced return are all possible outcomes of an asylum claim. The paper concludes that the state of knowledge is currently uncertain in relation to each element, with some good evidence of safety and belonging in the context of permanent resettlement and relatively poor understanding of success when children and young people are forced to return away from the country of asylum. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
‘Home is the place where, when you have to go there,
They have to take you in.’
The Death of the Hired Man by Robert Frost, 1915 (Frost, 1973)
‘permanent resettlement, temporary admission and enforced return are all possible outcomes of an asylum claim’