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This article draws attention to the relevance of young care leavers' exercise of agency as one possible key ingredient in overcoming barriers to engagement in work. Several previous studies show difficulties in entering adult life, both in relation to higher and further education as well as entrance into work life. The article analyses interviews with young adults from six countries, who have spent at least part of their childhood and youth in out‐of‐home care and the results indicate that the care leavers have the ability to make plans and set up goals for the future that they in many cases are able to achieve or at least are striving for over time. In many instances, they show a strong motivation, for example, to educate themselves pursuing their goals. To support this transition of young care leavers, it is important to listen to 'successful' cases such as the ones presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research examining the low educational attainment of children in care and care leavers tends to underuse social theory (Berridge, 2007). To contribute to addressing this gap, we use life course theory to explore the role of agency in shaping the educational pathways of 18 Irish adults (aged 24–36 years) with care experience. Findings suggest that agency is a valuable conceptual tool for examining the nuance and complexity of how individual actions shape the education of care‐experienced adults throughout the life course and interact with contextual and structural factors over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this component of a preliminary cross-national study (Ireland and Catalonia) of care leavers' experience in the world of work is to explore how carers may influence the entry of young people in care into the world of work and how they may also influence the young people's progress in that world. A total of 22 care leavers, aged 23-33 years, were recruited on the basis of their having substantial employment experience since leaving care. Evidence from the interviews reveals the importance of the role of carers in the work-related progression of the young care leavers, especially in relation to gaining work experience while they were still in care. The qualitative analysis shows that carers were influential in promoting (and sometimes hindering) progress in work and education. Carers were often reported to play an important role in opening up opportunities, giving support (modelling skill development, giving practical help, etc.), being role models and cultivating the young person's agency. On the basis of these findings, we propose an initial conceptualization of carer roles in positive work support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Work is important for promoting social inclusion, especially for marginalized or economically vulnerable populations. There is also evidence that work is associated with stability and social integration for young people who have left care. There is, however, little detailed evidence on how young care-leavers access, and remain in, the world of work. This paper seeks to address this issue. It reports on preliminary findings from a cross-national qualitative study conducted in Ireland and Catalonia. The study set out to explore factors influencing care-leavers' entry into, and progress within, the word of work. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 22 young adults (10 from Ireland, 12 from Catalonia) aged between 23 and 33 years. The main criteria for inclusion were that study participants should have spent an extended period of time in care and have had substantial employment experience since leaving care. Preliminary analysis reveals different ‘pathways’ into the world of work for the young adults in the study, and a range of influences and circumstances related to these pathways. The implications of the findings for further research and for child welfare practice and policy and research are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• (Mis)recognition experiences affect levels of trust and engagement between young people and those working with them. • Efforts by young asylum-seekers to negotiate experiences of misrecognition require to be better understood and appreciated. • Misrecognition is an important driver of young people's behavior. • Responding to misrecognition in a transgressive manner may be a meaningful way of developing agency and positive identities. Theories of recognition have received increasing attention in studies of children, young people and social care. However, the concept of misrecognition, as the opposite of recognition, is less featured. This article studies the experiences of misrecognition using evidence from the lived experience of underaged unaccompanied asylum-seeking boys in Finland. Drawing from conceptualizations of (mis)recognition and qualitative data created with 18 unaccompanied asylum-seeking boys living in residential care, we firstly look at how the boys articulate their experience of being seen as 'refugees'. Secondly, we study how they respond to the refugee label. The findings show that the refugee stigma is mainly experienced as misrecognition, which influences the ways the young asylum-seekers strive to construct agentic identities. Four ways of responding to this misrecognition are identified: adopting a diminished identity (resigning), standing up against misrecognition (resisting), acting to prove the prejudice they encounter wrong (conforming), and claiming ordinariness (performing). We argue that the misrecognition experiences of unaccompanied asylum seeking minors offer a valuable lens for deepening our understanding of young people's responses to adverse conditions. Their varying responses to misrecognition provide important insights into how social work and the care system can be more attentive to the experiences of marginalized children and young people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]