Reports on a research project that documented the experiences of young refugee children living in the United Kingdom (UK) in the late 1990s. At the time of the report, about 65,000 refugee children resided in the UK, mainly in London. Asylum-seeking and refugee parents were more likely than the general UK population to have children under the age of 5. While the refugee families came from widely different educational, social, and ethnic backgrounds, many of them had similarly suffered overwhelming trauma in their home countries. Unfortunately, aspects of the UK’s asylum and settlement policy also caused additional hardship and stress: a series of laws eroded asylum-seekers’ entitlement to housing as well as other social benefits, including child benefits. Recommendations included: (1) professionals from local authorities’ early childhood services department should be assigned to particular refugee families, both to assess the health care and psychological needs of the children and to arrange for services; and (2) refugee community organizations and local authorities should collaborate to recruit, train, and register child care providers from within refugee communities, especially among communities with high unemployment or a large portion of single parents.
