‘If we want, they help us in any way’: how ‘unaccompanied refugee minors’ experience mentoring relationships.

Austria – How do these young people, most of them seeking asylum, represent relationships in a mentorship programme (CBO run, connects trained adult volunteers with young people)? How they perceive their relationships and make sense of mentoring. Two multilingual group interviews with young people who participated in a pilot programme providing ‘godparents for URMs’. Most had already been in the country for a year or longer in various camps, had gone through a high number of institutional transitions and geographical moves in Austria. All of the informants were male (group interview 1: N = 10; group interview 2: N = 8); over 14; from Afghanistan, Syria and Somalia, and none lived on their own at the time. Some were enrolled in regular secondary school. Almost all interviewees were still claiming asylum. A ‘negative’ response was most likely at that time and place, particularly for those officially holding Afghan nationality. We picked those who had at least two months’ experience with their mentor to talk about notable episodes and to comment on the usability, value and limits of their mentorships.