Self and Mutual Recognition on the Path to Belonging: On the Transformative Potential of Critical Participatory Action Research with African Unaccompanied Minors in Italy

This thesis explores the transformative potential of critical participatory action research (CPAR) and Critical consciousness (CC) based interventions with unaccompanied migrant minors (UAMs) in Italy. The study uses liminality as a framework to understand migration. The research proposes that UAMs have to navigate these ambiguous spaces physically when crossing borders and symbolically when transitioning between identities. Liminality creates a space that allows for meaning making, allowing UAMs to reconstruct their identities as they adapt to a new culture while simultaneously dealing with letting go of their previous one. Using this framework, we created and implemented an intervention of seven sessions around the generative topic of Power with a group of unaccompanied minors in a CAS in Italy. The intervention aimed at helping minors understand and challenge the systemic power structures and hierarchical dynamics that define their social and legal environments, promoting their self-agency and integration into Italian society. Similarly, by focusing on mutual recognition, vulnerability expression, and validation, this study investigates how empowering interventions can foster resilience, emotional healing, and identity reconstruction among these vulnerable populations. By using qualitative methodologies, including semi-structured group sessions, games and art activities, this study engages a group of unaccompanied minors in creative processes that facilitate self-expression, group cohesion, and community building. Art becomes a tool that crosses the restrictions of language for sharing and processing experiences. The intervention promotes social recognition, group vulnerability and solidarity, empowering minors to renegotiate their positions within these structures and reclaim agency over their identities. The research collective aims at exploring the potentiality of these approaches in this specific group while this thesis aims at exploring the role of self and mutual recognition in the process of developing a sense of belonging. The study’s findings aim to contribute to developing more holistic intervention models that prioritize the voices and experiences of unaccompanied minors. These findings shed a light on the role of the expression and recognition of vulnerability as a means to create a greater sense of self-agency and belonging. The study offers practical recommendations for improving migrant reception services in a more humane way, promoting social and emotional resilience in this group, and enhancing their sense of belonging within host societies.