What is Directorate General for Child and Adolescent Care in Barcelona (DGAIA)

Although unaccompanied minors became visible in Spain in the late 1990s, they are still seen as a new migratory phenomenon, provoking numerous debates and questions around appropriate responses. This chapter aims to unveil the rights and wrongs of the current protection system in Catalonia through analysis and discussion of the role of socio-educational intervention in overcoming the prejudice-based discourses and attitudes that criminalize these migrants. In a descriptive study, staff from all the centres of the protection system of the Barcelona General Directorate for Child and Adolescent Care were interviewed. Results showed that overcrowding in the protection system was causing tensions and dysfunctions. Great efforts must be made to develop individualized educational interventions adapted to unaccompanied minors' specific situations and to facilitate their integration. Five main recommendations and a range of future lines of research derive from these findings.