Resumen de The phenomenon of unaccompanied international migrant children in Nariño - Colombia and their state of exposure to vulnerability factors in transit circuits

Alejandra Duarte Lasso, Mirtha Silvana Garat de Marín, Emmanuel Soriano Flores, Eduardo René Silva Alvarado

• International migration in border territories converges in multilevel territorial dynamics that are linked to different forms of vulnerability, risks, and violence. These forms of vulnerability, risks, and violence tend to be concentrated in specific segments of the migrant population, particularly women, children, and adolescents. This article presents as a research product a situated analytical description of migratory processes of unaccompanied international children and their state of exposure to vulnerability in migratory transit circuits in Nariño Colombia. The problem was typified in two categories: to characterize the population segment of unaccompanied international migrant children and adolescents in a migratory transit situation (in terms of socio-demographics, migratory movements, and transit routes) and to determine their state of exposure to vulnerability factors. The research had a qualitative-quantitative approach with an exploratory-descriptive scope. The type of sampling applied was non-probabilistic with a multiple case study sample and triangulation analysis method considering the criteria of pertinence and relevance. The analysis was based on the following axes: territories, subjects, and transits versus dimensions and factors of vulnerability. The results showed individual and collective migration processes of unaccompanied international adolescents between 16 and 18 years of age. Exposure factors in the geographic and physical dimensions showed a greater proclivity to suffer gender-based violence and other forms of violence that emerge from trans-territorial dynamics in areas of influence sensitive to armed conflicts, which converge with their transit circuits. In addition, it was found that this segment faces systems of multidimensional violence at the levels of communities, territories, and institutions that reproduce an effect of expulsion, marginalization, and segregation as a result of the geopolitics of the territories in Nariño, border migration management, but also of the traditional protection model based on family reunification and humanitarian aid.