Refugee and asylum-seeker children’s experiences: results of a meta ethnography

ABSTRACT Children’s geographies research contributes to the intent of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child by comprehending children as cogent agents in the telling and creation of their lives. Voices of asylum-seeking and refugee children are under-represented in the research literature. Hence, reference to their needs in relevant national and international policy contexts is inadequately informed. A meta ethnography synthesised self-reported needs and experiences of 288 child refugees and asylum-seekers across eight interview-based studies, each of which included at least one child aged 13 or younger. The guiding question for the study is: How do children describe their experiences within the systems designed to support refugee and asylum-seekers? Results indicate that refugee and asylum-seeker children can and must speak for themselves. Adults and services must listen to ensure policies and services are adequately informed by children’s perspectives and needs.

study was: How do children describe their experiences within the systems intended to support refugee and asylum-seekers?

Refugee and asylum-seeker children
An estimated fifty-two per cent of the world's 25.4 million refugees are children, with 173,800 of them separated or unaccompanied (Stevens 2020).143 countries are signatories to the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) protocol (UNHCR 1967), agreeing to resettle a certain number of refugees annually.These countries also undertake processing of asylum applications for people who reach their shores with substantiated fears of persecution (Kerwin and Nicholson 2021).
It is well documented that refugee children experience high levels of distress and potential trauma in the process of leaving their country of origin eventually arriving at the new destination country for resettlement, often many years later (Woodland et al. 2010).Terrorising events, severe deprivation, unbearable losses and upheaval occur for most children during this transition period (Chase, 2013;Rousseau, et al. 2001;Thomas, Nafees, and Bhugra 2004).This process compromises children's expectation of safety, freedom, legal rights, empowerment, and hope (Shakya et al. 2010).
Children, adolescents and young adults currently seeking asylum, or have undergone resettlement as a refugee, may be fearful but unable to advise others of these fears, and are challenged in providing clear communication because of their past experiences including stress and trauma (Hebebrand et al. 2016).Unaccompanied Minors (UM) have greater vulnerability (Derluyn and Broekaert 2007), but are often invisible in national statistics about refugee and asylum-seekers (Rosen, et al. 2021).More recently the United Kingdom records numbers of children arriving aged 17 years or younger.In 2022 children comprised 17% of asylum-seekers (Home Office UK 2023).
Considering the prevalence of sexual violence in refugee populations Araujo et al. (2019) analysed 60 peer reviewed papers to find that young female refugee and asylum-seekers are the highest cohort of reported victims of sexual violence, but men and children are also victims.Overall the phenomenon of sexual violence is under reported.There is notable absence of information about genital mutilation or sexual torture in review studies of prevalence of sexual violence, as most reviews refer only to rape (Araujo et al. 2019).There is minimal information regards prevention of sexual violence perpetrated within and toward asylum-seeker and refugee communities, especially concerning as there is evidence available that the violence does not stop once the destination country is reached (De Schrijver et al. 2018).
There are multiple accounts of refugee children so overwhelmed by their experiences that they cannot function, fall into a stupor, and require tube feeding (see Ngo and Hodes 2020), resulting in a diagnostic category of resignation syndrome (Sallin et al. 2016).With similarities to pervasive refusal syndrome (Nunn, Lask, and Owen 2014) it is telling that reports of both diagnoses specifically mention refugee and asylum-seeker children as a vulnerable group.Understanding children's needs more clearly, and having effective ways to respond to these needs, starts with taking account of their reports of their experiences, not only symptoms of distress.A responsive child-focused system may address the situations and resultant needs.
In some countries, for example the UK, UM have lower incidence than adults of being granted refugee status (Crawley 2010).One explanation is that services provided to refugees and asylumseekers are not adequately child-oriented (Crawley 2010).Procedures and workers are embedded in adultism (Flasher 1978), overlooking the contribution children can make to describing and asserting their experiences and rights (Ottosson, Eastmond, and Cederborg 2017).Greater attention to research that is child-focused informs development of appropriate policies and support services.

Meta ethnography
Meta ethnography is a method of qualitative synthesis method founded in the 1980s (Noblit and Hare 1988).It is a relatively common method in healthcare studies since the 1990s, but is not currently used in human geography research.The utility of application and findings reported here may be of value to the field.
Meta ethnography is a synthesis of findings from selected qualitative studies relevant to the research theme or question by reflecting or translating them into one another (Noblit and Hare 1988;Toye et al. 2014).'Interpretations and explanations in the original studies are treated as data, and are translated across several studies' (Britten et al. 2002, 210).The thematic and conceptual material within each study is compared across the outcomes of the studies with the ultimate goal of presenting new insights through a synthesis of findings.The goal of any type of meta-synthesis is to engage a third order interpretation to go beyond initial findings of each study (Britten et al. 2002).
Meta synthesis and its various methods have proliferated (Edwards and Kaimal 2016).Caveats are warranted as to quality and applicability of procedures and findings (Thorne 2017).Rigorous meta synthesis engages a close, in-depth examination of findings across multiple studies, deepening and enriching understandings of human experiences.This meta ethnography aims to promote better understanding of refugee and asylum-seeker children's rights and needs.

Motivations of the researcher
I am a qualified and registered creative arts therapist in Australia with experience conducting research into music therapy for health and wellbeing, mainly with children and families but also in adult mental health.As Chair of the Board of Directors for the Association for the Wellbeing of Children in Healthcare, I am engaged in ongoing advocacy for children and young people.I have a long track record leading clinical training programmes, mainly at postgraduate level.As a young child my family were involved in a massive natural disaster losing our home and possessions irrevocably.More impactfully, we were immediately relocated to a new part of Australia causing upheaval and mental strain, requiring ongoing adaptation.As an adult I recognised the trauma experienced, and sought assistance for the impacts on my own mental health in relation to these past experiences.This personal insight into challenges for refugee children navigating their distressed families alongside their new environment motivates research and practical support undertaken in programmes to support asylum-seekers and refugees.I also completed the Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma.Through my personal experience, and training that I receive and provide, I recognise that children's voices are frequently absent, or marginalised.When included they are often an addendum to youth and parent or adult experiences.I seek to highlight the absence of children's voices in refugee studies, and amplify relevant voices, to provide helpful information about children's needs.

Method
Published studies based on qualitative interviews offer a way to understand children's lived experiences, and their emotional landscape, in experiences of fleeing and resettlement (Ottosson, Eastmond, and Cederborg 2017).In a child-focused review of asylum-seeker children in detention in Australia McAlister, et al (2019) demonstrated that children are able to give rich accounts of their experiences relevant to the formation of policy to guide ethical treatment of children in aligned services.Interviews provide individualised and detailed evidence of substantive and particular experiences, increasing sensitivity to the needs and experiences of these children.
Meta ethnography (Noblit and Hare 1988) guided the analysis, with the eMERGe framework (France et al. 2019) consulted retrospectively.Seven steps are followed in meta ethnography: getting started; deciding what is relevant to the initial interest; reading the studies; determining how the studies are related; translating the studies into one another; synthesising translations; and expressing the synthesis (Noblit and Hare 1988).

Getting started and deciding what is relevant to the initial interest
The inclusion criteria for the studies in the meta ethnography: (1) Written in the English language; (2) Published in a peer-reviewed journal; (3) Included in-depth qualitative interviews; (4) Included children, with at least one interview participant aged 13 years or younger; (5) Focused primarily on refugees and asylum-seekers.
The organising task for commencement of the review was to find papers published in peer reviewed journals with first-hand accounts of the experiences of refugee children.Medline, AIO, SSCI, CINAHL, IBSS, EMBASE and JSTOR databases were accessed using a global electronic search with combinations of the terms child and refugee, refugee and interview, and qualitative and interview along with refugee child*.Most of the papers found through this process were not directly relevant to the study.Lorenc et al. (2012) noted researchers often employ Cochrane-style search methods when conducting meta syntheses (Lefebvre et al. 2021) in order to be accepted by an editor or the reviewers.In healthcare research there is no agreed number of papers to successfully complete a meta ethnography (France et al. 2019).Instead, the quality of data from each paper accounts for the success of the final report (France et al. 2019).Meta synthesis reviews are more useful when a small number of the most relevant papers are included (Lorenc et al. 2012).
A group of 30 papers were collected focalised on the theme of children's experiences of being a refugee or asylum-seeker; found through a Google scholar search, and by reading reference lists of relevant papers on web sites. 2 These papers were gradually honed to a smaller number through reading each paper several times and deciding its inclusion.The most consistent reason for noninclusion was relevant keywords were noted but the focus was on older teenagers and/or young adults.Thus, most rejected papers did not meet the criteria for inclusion of at least one child 13 years or younger.
No geographical location was specified in the inclusion criteria; either for the country of origin, or for the destination country where the interviews took place.Other meta syntheses are not confined to a particular country of origin or settlement (for example Kingsbury and Chatfield 2019).Archambault (2012) included children from eight conflict zones in a study of refugee children's narratives about resettlement.Shakya et al. (2010) studied the experiences of Afghan, Karen, and Sudanese youth relocated to Toronto.It is relatively usual to refer to both asylum-seeker and refugee children in studies of their experiences, as although engaged in different legal processes, they are nonetheless likely to have similar, shared experiences (see Spicer 2008).Therefore, papers were included if they referred to experiences of children with varied status from asylum-seekers housed in the intended country of residence, to children in refugee camps awaiting placement (see Table 1).
Some papers from initial search results were not included because the children were identified as having immigrant status but were technically neither asylum-seekers nor refugees (for example, Fassetta 2015; Roth and Grace 2015).Some papers were removed as they did not include qualitative analysis of in-depth interview data, or were not focused on children's perspectives.For example, children were interviewed with their parents, or parental and adult views were included in the overall analysis and findings (see Morantz, Rousseau, and Heymann 2011;Thoresen et al, 2017).
Initially a ten-year period was considered necessary to ensure recency of publication.However, too few papers were found using this criteria so two earlier papers were included (Maegusuku-Hewett et al. 2007;Thomas, Nafees, and Bhugra 2004).The initial search found only two papers meeting the criteria.In the follow-on search, and through close examination of the reference lists of the initial publications, a further six papers were found resulting in eight papers for analysis (see Appendix 1).

Reading the studies
The studies were read multiple times to garner characteristics of each study (see Table 1).Interviews with 288 children comprised the eight studies with locations including Canada, Finland, Korea, Sweden, Thailand, and the UK.Three papers focussed on UM experiences.Most papers referred to insecurity of the children's circumstances whether in relation to the future, or immediate issues such as lack of resources and poor or unavailable accommodation.A number of reports included children's future aspirations, especially with reference to the role of education in building routines in precarious circumstances fuelling their hope for a better life.
Two papers included reference to child participants who witnessed killings of family members, and these papers referred to experiences of rape and sexual abuse (Chase, 2013;Thomas, Nafees, and Bhugra 2004).One paper which included extensive details of sexual violence recorded that 32 of the 100 children in the sample reported being raped with 50% of these reporting multiple rapes (Thomas, Nafees, and Bhugra 2004).No papers indicated information about any of the child participants having killed others although this has been documented in other studies focused on refugees fleeing war contexts and child soldiers (for example, Betancourt et al. 2015).
Concepts were extracted from the papers by highlighting themes identified within the research, or recording a salient feature of the findings.Two relevant papers not aligned to the criteria (Crawley 2010; Hopkins and Hill 2010) were used as reference papers in lieu of consultation with coresearchers regularly employed in meta ethnography (see Britten et al. 2002;O'Callaghan et al. 2016).Themes in these comparator papers were considered when developing emergent concepts to ensure alignment with children's experiences and behaviours within the refugee process.
Determining how the studies were related to each other Through reading the papers multiple times, and making memos of the commentary and experiences of refugee children, more than fifty concepts were identified (see abridged list at Table 2).
These concepts were then contrasted and compared across the papers in consultation with the reference papers.Nine meta-concepts were devised through finding likenesses across the original group of concepts then comparing these to each of the main findings of the studies.It was intended to ensure each of the meta-concepts related to every study but this required problematic forcing so was reconsidered.Therefore, most of the final meta-concepts [see Table 3] are relevant to most of the papers.

Results: translating the studies into one another
Individual concepts arising from each papers are compared with all the others, checking similarities and differences between concepts and metaphors, which allows the researcher to create further groupings of conceptual categories (Cahill et al. 2018).Translation from the meta-concepts into four summary concepts was elaborated through second and third order interpretations (see Table 4).From this process nine final meta-concepts were condensed into the following four concepts; (1) Being in limbo in the asylum-seeking process results in insecurity; Children use multiple strategies to maintain agency (2) Negative influences and disruptive experiences effect behaviour and choices; The immigration system can be a negative intrusive force in everyday life; Gender can have an influence; Losses and past trauma intrude on the present (3) A happy and normal life is hoped for; Learning and education can be a key to a hopeful future (4) Relationships with adults can be protective or destructive, and are sometimes difficult to manage

Synthesising the translations
The translated concepts were further elaborated in the following three synthesising statements by moving back and forth between the summary concepts and the descriptions of experiences afforded through reading the interview commentary within each paper.
Being in limbo in the asylum-seeking process awaiting a decision results in insecurity.Children use multiple strategies to maintain and promote personal agency and self-regulation, but a coherent biographical narrative and access to cultural continuity may be unavailable due to uncertainty about the future.While some strategies used by children to manage their equilibrium may have short term effectiveness, many strategies are potentially harmful and will have long term impacts.Negative influences and disruptive experiences effect behaviour and choices which may be difficult for adults to understand and respond with adequate empathy.
Losses are prevalent and experienced in personal and ontological terms affecting the development of coherent identity and valued status Being in limbo results in insecurity and fear Being negatively branded as an asylum seekercategorised as otherunable to represent themselves with biographical coherence Learning the language is a door to fitting in and finding opportunities Persistent intrusion of government and departments Availability of alcohol in refugee campschildren using alcohol -fighting Children stealing, fighting and drinking -because of neglect and abuse/family problems Loss of trust in adults Not having enough food to eat in the camps negatively influences behaviour Sexuality and early pregnancysometimes because of alcohol Financial problems Adults beating and raping children Feelings of despair and hopelessness/pessimism Children can stop going to school and lose interest in education In a residential care situation there may be many rules some of which do not seem to have a basis in the child's interest or needs.
Children are not consultedjust told Emergent curiosity about gender in the new country in comparison to accepted roles in the country of origin Experiences of racism contribute to identity through hybridism, separation and resistancefor example wearing the hijab as a personal expression of cultural identity/pride.Many teenage males described racism from verbal to physical abuse but the younger children in the study did not describe experiences of racism Sexual violence is prevalent and more prevalent among unaccompanied children Children can feel overlooked in the immigration process -never asked to give an account of themselves.A lack of parental support combined with lack of child-centred practices in the immigration services leaves children vulnerable Children's attempts at claiming agency are not always what adults or parents will approve of, for example silence.The immigration process can cause discomfort and result in avoidance (a child pretends she has to go to school when a family meeting is called).The administrative processes can prompt resistancea 14-year-old girl when granted asylum had papers signed by her parents and asks that she also be able to sign the papers.Families aspire to an ordinary and everyday life of routine with school and leisure as the focus Silence (about immigration processes) maintains hope in the future Imagination, playfulness and creativity are used to shield from possibility that a residency permit might not be granted Strategies such as creating one's own space (reading during school breaks) or going into public places alone or with friends/ siblings are an escape to feel 'happy and normal' Parents losing hope for the future can result in children becoming parentified Children respond tactically to difficult parental situationsincluding devitalised actions of self-neglect and harm as a way to manage loss of control School offers hope for the futurethe normal life Learning the language quickly can facilitate integration and improve school performance Lack of money, being placed in a rural environment, and having no friends at school can compound children's loneliness and isolation.There can be a disconnect between the aspirations of the system and the lived experiences of children Table 3. Linked concepts across the papers with emerging categories.

Emerging categories Linked concepts
Losses and past trauma intrude on the present Loss as a personal and ontological process affected byand then affectingcurrent identity, status Because of past trauma, focussing attention at school can be challenging Teenagers positioned as children in the new country may find this position at odds with their previous role of having greater responsibilitycare for the home, care of younger children etc. Being in limbo in the asylum seeking process results in insecurity Insecurity and feeling fearful Insecurity Children feel shielded from the asylum process by their parents but also feel involved (rushing to the letterbox when the mail arrives to see if there is a letter from the immigration services) Applying for asylum can compound trauma because of the inherent uncertainty The immigration system can be a negative intrusive force in everyday life

Subjected to tight restrictions Persistent intrusion of government and departments into their lives
There can be a disconnect between the aspirations of the system (Sweden's reception policy of offering children a normal life) and the lived experiences of children In a residential care situation there may be many rules some of which do not seem to have a basis in the child's interest or needs.Children are not consultedjust told Children can feel overlooked in the immigration processignored by the workers, and never asked to give an account of themselves.The immigration process can cause discomfort and result in avoidance (a child pretends she has to go to school when a family meeting is called).Negative influences and disruptive experiences effect behaviour and choices Availability of alcohol in the refugee campschildren using alcoholfights between children Children stealing, fighting and drinking -because of neglect and abuse/family problems Loss of trust in adults Children using alcohol because of peer behaviour or because their parents drink Sexuality and early pregnancy -sometimes because of alcohol Financial problems Feelings of despair and hopelessness/pessimism Because of many difficulties children can stop going to school and lose interest in education Sexual violence is prevalent in the experiences of many children seeking asylum or within the refugee programme Sexual violence is more prevalent among children who are unaccompanied Being negatively branded as an asylum seekercategorised as otherunable to represent themselves with biographical coherence Many of the teenage males in the study described racism from verbal to physical abuse but the younger children in the study did not describe experiences of racism Not having enough food to eat in the camps negatively influences behaviour Experiences of racism contribute to identity through hybridism, separation and /or resistance identity for example wearing the hijab as a personal expression of cultural identity and cultural pride.One example of desired assimilation and steps to achieve this.Lack of money, being placed in a rural environment, and having no friends at school can compound children's loneliness and isolation.Learning and education can be a key to a hopeful future School offers hope for the futurethe normal life Children need knowledge of the new country including opportunities to learn the language Optimism and minimisation are strategies that can improve resilience Gender can have an influence Where the gender balance was unequal in the residential units (majority males) females described working out their place carefully (Continued ) The immigration system can be a negative intrusive force in everyday life impacting children's stability and confidence.While it is acknowledged that male and female children can have violent traumatic experiences that lead to the need for asylum from their home country, girls are at greater risk for sexual assault before and during the process of seeking asylum.
While a happy and normal life is hoped for, losses and past trauma can intrude on the present.Learning and education are invested with hopes for the future.Relationships with adults can be protective or destructive and are sometimes difficult to manage; psychological and physical safety may be unavailable to the child.

Discussion of the findings
Most of the 288 participants included in this meta-synthesis shared experiences of being a child during the process of fleeing their country of origin and seeking resettlement as a refugee or asylum-seeker.This synthesis indicates important themes of their experiences around precariousness, uncertainty, developmental challenges, and problems of being misunderstood.The discussion Children can seek approval locally through social or educational systems with the belief this approval will translate into approval from the authorities for their application to stay Learning the language quickly can facilitate integration and improve school performance but this also aligns with magical thinking where the child probably knows that doing well at school is unlikely to effect the asylum decision Imagination, playfulness and creativity were used to shield from the possibility that a residency permit might not be granted Silence (about the immigration process and its attendant uncertainty) is a way to maintain hope in the future The process of being in the immigration services can also prompt resistancea 14-year-old girl when granted asylum had papers signed by her parents but asked that she also be able to sign the papers.A 'happy and normal life' is hoped for Families aspire to an ordinary and everyday life of routine with school and leisure as the focus Strategies such as creating one's own space (reading during school breaks) or going into public places alone or with friends/siblings were an escape to feel 'happy and normal'.
below provides reflection on four concepts developed from the synthesis, and includes direct quotes from the children's interviews to illuminate their perspectives.
Being in limbo in the asylum-seeking process results in insecurity; children use multiple strategies to maintain agency The findings across multiple of the studies pointed to the difficulty of insecurity of one's current and future identity, especially for children born in a refugee camp outside their parents' homeland, and then brought to a further country to be settled.
I do not belong to this country … I do not belong in Ethiopia, I do not belong in Eritrea.I do not belong to England … If you ask me where is your home, I don't know … I don't know my country … I can't speak my language … I don't want to go there, because I don't have anybody there … I don't have family.(Chase, 2013, 866) Negative influences and disruptive experiences effect behaviour and choices; the immigration system can be a negative intrusive force in everyday life; gender can have an influence; losses and past trauma intrude on the present Precariousness, feelings of not being safe, nor having safe places to be, were consistently encountered in the analysis whether in the child's current circumstances or historically.
My parents were killed . . .I was used like a servant and abused.I came to England when I was 13 to work, and I was passed among many families.They treated me very badly and I never went to school.(Thomas, Nafees, and Bhugra 2004, 117) Other results indicated that the parent's difficulties complicated the child's ability to be social and learn.
Some children are shy among their friends because their parents are drinking.For example, the people will say to the children that your father drinks alcohol, so the children will be shy and won't be able to go among the people.Multiple themes from the results pointed to endemic sexual and physical violence, including gender based, and within families, as well as from adults towards children.
… sometimes they [military boys] might try to come in the refugee camp and rape people in the camp even though the government said you can't do that … .everythingthat happens there [refugee camp] was all about violence, there's like never peace.(Ayoub and Zhou 2016, 12) … the soldiers searched our house.They beat all the children in the house.They raped me and my stepsisters in front of my father … and I got pregnant and I paid for an abortion.
Then I got beaten and raped again … (Thomas, Nafees, and Bhugra 2004, 118) A and normal life is hoped for; Learning and education can be a key to a hopeful future School experiences are identified as safety-inducing and potentially transformative.
… in my country everything was very bad.The schools were closed and we couldn't do anything.I had the dream of getting educated in one of the best countries in Europe.(Thomas, Nafees, and Bhugra 2004, 115) Until like I was here [in Canada] four years, I stopped thinking about the teachers are gonna hit me, and I'm like now I know Canada is safe, now I know the teachers will not hit me, and I can tell them about my problems.(Ayoub and Zhou 2016, 12) Opportunities to engage playfulness and imagination buffered recall of the past, and dread of the future.This indicates schools and educational services are key contexts in which safe spaces are created for children's learning and play.Thus, education systems are required to consider the needs of refugee and asylum-seeker children, and the skills needed by staff to support and enhance children's experiences.However, Chase also identified that there can be despair about the pointlessness of education if deportation is a constant threat.As one of her respondent's identified: It's really, really stressful.I ask, 'what I am doing this for?'Two months before I graduate, they might ask me to leave the country.You just don't know.It's really horrible.You don't know if you'll be able to live here the day after tomorrow.I don't enjoy thinking about the future at the moment.I just want to take it step by step.Not knowing doesn't make me feel more motivatedit actually puts me off.(Chase,865) Relationships with adults can be protective or destructive, and are sometimes difficult to manage Children in the studies included here advised experiences of being overlooked in the system, ignored by adults, and not having their voices heard.For example, a child respondent indicated being underestimated as follows: Yes teachers were very surprised because I got an A for everything and the other children weren't able to do it.(Maegusuku-Hewett, et al., 2007, 314) Other reflections on family life by children were the differences between life before settlement.
When we were in (refugee camp) Thailand, we were left alone and ate by ourselves because parents went out to work for long hours.When we came to Korea, we sat down together and had dinner happily together.(Nho, et al. 2018, 612) The meta synthesis revealed multiple dimensions of attempts at agency by children.This included actions such as using silence, refusing to attend meetings, and/or self-harm, as a means to gain a sense of control.This contrasted with reported responses more aligned with fatalistic resignation and escape, such as depression and alcoholism.
Archambault (2012) indicated as a series of events, rather than one final step, for refugee and asylum-seeker children in the Norwegian public support system, with each step engaging dimensions of insecurity and uncertainty.As Nho et al (2018) found, many refugee and asylum seeker children engaged in interviews advised that they were talking about their experiences for the first time.
Understanding children's experiences can only be gleaned by close and deep listening to their accounts of the process of resettlement.This listening needs to be embedded as standard in service design and provision, aligned with contemporary calls to give greater account of children's perspectives in relation to their experiences of being refugees and/or asylum-seekers (McAlister at al., 2019).Rather than only celebrating survivorship, refugee children and asylum-seeker children benefit from engaging geographies of hope to support and enhance their flourishing (McAlister, et al., 2019).
The geographer Crawley (2010) noted that much of the research available about children in the refugee and asylum system is commissioned from organisations with a remit to provide care and protection to children.These studies tend to focus on the neediness of refugee children and cast them as 'powerless, innocent, and profoundly vulnerable' (Crawley 2010, 162).Lems, Oester, and Strasser (2020) described the potential backlash against children who do not fit in the picture of the lost, innocent, apolitical refugee which can result in them being treated as dangerous.Wernesjö (2012;2015) warned against the creation of a category of problem children and youth in research which examines UM needs.
For a refugee child to have the best opportunity in the new country, every system with which they engage, from schooling to healthcare, should focus on the present first, the future second, and the past last (Hopkins and Hill 2010).

Limitations of the study
Meta ethnography is usually conducted with a group of authors.Instead, this study was developed by a sole author.The paper in draft form was sent to a number of expert readers for quality assurance, and their comments were incorporated, or changes made, based on their feedback.All prereaders noted the small number of papers (N = 8) with concern, as did reviewers.To include more papers, it would be necessary to a. expand the method beyond in-depth qualitative interview, and/or b. open the age range to include reports where no children 13 years old or younger are included. 3In their meta ethnography of resilience in young refugees Sleijpen et al. (2016) found 26 papers.However, only nine of these included children younger than 13.Both their results and a number of papers found for this study reflects the relatively small number of studies conducted with younger refugee children.Meta syntheses of childhood experience in a range of areas reflect the challenge that only a small number of research studies focus specifically on children.Using the inclusion criteria of interview-based studies in this synthesis limited the number of papers.However, without interviews it is not possible to claim the voice of the child is represented and a similar concern is noted if studies without children are included in the analysis.Readers interested in the experiences of teenagers, and young adults, younger than 18 and up to 25 years of age, are directed to Demazure, Baeyens, and Pinsault (2022).

Conclusion
Meta ethnography permits multiple voices to be reflected in a synthesis of shared experiences.Results of this study are important, impactful and require further attention to ensure supports for refugee and asylum-seeking children are optimised.By undertaking this synthesis of the voices of 288 children in the asylum-seeking and refugee community it is demonstrated that children can and do speak for themselves in relation to geographies of experience.Ultimately this ensures policies and services are able to be adequately informed from children's perspectives and needs.
Undertaking further child-focused research with refugee and asylum-seeking children is encouraged, with the aim to develop greater understanding of the value of recording and reporting children's experiences of fleeing persecution and building new lives.In turn, through creating a greater body of evidence, policy and practice is better informed.
An urgent matter requiring attention in policy and practice is the relevance of sexual violence experiences.For example, mandated screening for sexual and other types of violence as standard practice in induction of children to services, alongside evidence-based strategies and approaches to prevent sexual violence.
More formal access to children's voices is available to inform service development.For example, reference and focus groups explicitly established to elicit relevant information about children's experiences are key information sources.These consultations are successfully conducted by trusted teachers or other workers known to the children who can be supported to elicit information relevant to inform policy.
Governments and agency policy frameworks specific to refugees and asylum-seeking children need to include their perspective and interests with reference to the United National Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989).It is intended this review and analysis will guide those efforts, encouraging more researchers to consider and incorporate CG in gaining information and perspectives on asylum-seeker and refugee experience.

Table 1 .
Characteristics of papers included in the review.

Table 3 .
Continued.fearful about how it could work.However, the boys did not discuss the girls in the interviews.Compared to boys, girls can have some restriction in navigating access to the living space and outside world within the context of residential care Curiosity about gender in the new country in comparison to accepted roles in the country of origin Relationships with adults can be protective or destructive and are sometimes difficult to manage Bullying and abuseadults beating and raping children in the camps Parents losing hope for the future can result in children becoming parentified, especially when the child speaks the language and the parent does notchildren can feel responsible to bring fun and happiness into the tense home environment A lack of parental support combined with lack of child-centred practices in the immigration services leaves children additionally vulnerable Children respond tactically to difficult parental situations Some children come to a country of safety but are not safethey are passed from family to family like a servant and poorly treated by adults Children's attempts at claiming agency are not always what adults or parents will approve ofe.g.silence.Conflict over what food is available (in the accommodation) can cause tensions Children use multiple strategies to maintain agency

Table 4 .
Summary concepts with second and third order interpretations.