“The Will to Survive”: The Lives of Young People with “No Papers” in the United Kingdom

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

I enjoyed reading this paper. It includes a detailed and interesting argument and some rich empirical data from some very articulate and thoughtful young people. There are a number of things that I felt needed to be addressed before this paper could be considered publishable.

1.      There is a lack of synthesis of the empirical material, in particular the extensive use of quotes from participants are not always closely analysed or situated within the wider body of literature. The analysis would, therefore, benefit from more thorough descriptions of why a particular quote describes what the author suggests that it does. For the analysis to stand up to scrutiny the author would need to explain the quotes in more detail and provide clearer links to the explanatory text. The results would need to be more fully integrated with the theoretical and conceptual literature in this area. As it currently stands, I am not fully convinced that the theoretical reasoning that is presented in the paper is able to sufficiently contribute to the understanding of the phenomena described in the empirical material.

2.      The title positioned hope as a central feature, the abstract suggested the paper would provide an analysis of  hope and how it is sustained, however at no point in the paper was hope theorised/conceptualised. It can be many different things and take different forms. For this paper to make a contribution to this area of literature it would require a fully-theorised conceptualisation of hope, it’s value/role/manifestation etc in the lives of young people, and particularly in the lives of young people facing the traumatic experiences .

3.      The article is based on a very small sample of young people (which raises questions about the generalisability of their experiences) but the empirical material is rich. To what extent can the observations made by the author be seen to represent the experiences of young undocumented migrants in particular? How do gender, varied lived experience and other socio-demographic factors impact on a young person’s experiences of love and belonging.

4.      The paper concludes with some thoughts on supportive attachments as a base on which a sense of belonging can develop but stops short of suggesting the implications of this for policy or practice. The author could more clearly present who this research would be useful for and how it could be used.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

·        Thank you for the opportunity to review the manuscript entitled “‘Just Hope and the Will to Survive’: Young People with ‘No Papers’ in the United Kingdom”, submitted for publication in Social Sciences, manuscript ID socsci-2635607.

·        Although the general topic of the paper fits into the journal topic, this version of the manuscript does not meet the necessary criteria to recommend its publication in the submitted form.

·        Bellow you can find the main arguments in supporting my recommendation:

o   the article is mostly descriptive, „ I discuss how participants hold hope, focus on their goals for the future and engage in purposeful activities as a way of enduring everyday challenges of living with no papers” (lines 31-33). There is no research question, no hypothesis in order to direct a sketch of an analysis.

o   concepts that are indeed hard to operationalize in view of being measured are not properly defined. What does the author understand by „hope”, „will to survive”, „love” or „presence of community”? This is a scientific paper to be published in a scientific journal, so any concept that is fundamental for the analysis should be properly described.

o   there are several undocumented/unexplained judgemental allegations, such as „the destructive impact of UK immigration control” (lines 25-26).

o   although the subject is extremely sensitive and important, and there is a need for systematic analyses that indicate best practices and major challenges in the efforts to understand and provide help for undocumented youth, the manuscript is completely missing data about the young refugees it refers to. For example, regarding the section „Terminology” – indeed, the immigrants are very different, but it is very important to confine the area of the study at a specific category of immigrants and to describe its features because undocumented youth can come from completely various backgrounds, fact which deeply affect their relation with the community and their perspectives on the future.

o   the journal being an academic publication, it is recommended more attention to be paid to the theoretical framework of the manuscript.

o   the „methods” section does not offer the details necessary to understand why those specific 7 persons where chosen for this study and why their particular narratives, approached via a qualitative perspective (it is difficult to recognize a proper qualitative methodology), are relevant in order to allow conclusions valid for a larger category of undocumented youth.

o   the options for the research design are not clear or substantially described/supported.

o   the argument that the research follows „to explore the present (everyday lives), past (life history) and future (hopes and dreams) of the participants” (lines 70-71) is not supported by the „results and discussion” sections which is organized around some themes (living and dreaming; love; community).

o   the conclusions of the paper are poor and not supported by the content of the manuscript; therefore, there is no clear contribution of the study or suggestion about how it could really inspire future research: „The linking of love and belonging as articulated by hooks (2001) is helpful for thinking about the lives of young people with no papers in helping us to understand how the presence or absence of these experiences can sustain or diminish one’s resilience” (lines 547-550) or „ I conclude with her words as an apt illustration of how love, the form of the presence and guidance of a sibling, sustains the ‘will to survive’” (lines 563-564).

·        I hope my comments could help the author improve its study.

·        Therefore, as stated at the beginning of this review, the manuscript does not comply with the standards of the journal and my recommendation is not to be published in the submitted version.

Author Response

Please see the attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The authors have addressed the issues in this iteration of the paper. The paper  will make a worthwhile contribution to the research in this area.

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The author's care to answer and integrate the feedback received in the first review round is noteworthy. The updating of the bibliography and the qualitative increase of the academic discourse can be observed. Although there are still areas that could be improved (generalization of some conclusions after a limited number of interviews), the work can be published in this form.