Conference Program

Although the right to education is formally guaranteed for unaccompanied minors (UAMs) (Thiene, 2018), access to age-appropriate schooling can be undermined by recurrent administrative and school-level practices (Augelli et al., 2018; Ferrari et al., 2025). This contribution reports findings from a bottom-up inquiry initiated by six social workers employed in an ordinary reception facility for UAMs in Friuli Venezia Giulia (Italy), under joint academic coordination. The study asked whether repeated failures to secure educational pathways reflected isolated contingencies or systemic mechanisms linked to the implementation of existing policy frameworks—particularly salient given that compulsory schooling applies up to age 16, while educational continuation between 16 and 18 often depends on guardianship decisions and institutional capacity.

We first constructed an “ideal pathway” for enrolment and educational placement through a step-by-step process map derived from national and regional policy documents and benchmarked against a Ministerial vademecum. We then compared this pathway with the documented educational trajectories of 152 UAMs hosted between 2022 and 2025, triangulating case files (including enrolment documentation, individual plans, and correspondence with schools) with structured reflective journals. The usage of such documentation draws on recommendations by Terzera and Bonomi (2024; Evans et al., 2018).

The analysis produced a typology of exclusionary mechanisms recurrent across cases, which is discussed vis-à-vis extant literature on the subject matter: delays in the appointment or effective activation of legal guardianship (Peres Cancio, 2025); technical and administrative barriers in digital enrolment platforms when personal identifiers do not match standard formats (Ferrari et al., 2025); pre-enrolment requirements around Italian language certification despite the absence of a clear mandate and proportional capacity (Santagati, 2016); and bottlenecks in the fragmented and regionalized VET provision (Ince-Beqo & Barberis, 2025).

While the dataset is drawn from a single facility, the recurrence and policy-proximate nature of these mechanisms suggests transferability of risk beyond the case. Consistently with previous studies (Lombi et al., 2018), we conclude by outlining a practicable enrolment workaround protocol (theory of change-styled) for reception facilities and a complementary advocacy strategy targeting implementable points of policy and practice to reduce inequality in educational opportunities for migrant-background youth.