The experiences of unaccompanied young migrants and refugees challenge the idea of a common European asylum policy but also show that traditional welfare typologies used to account for differences in welfare across states fail to account for the lived experiences of this group. They do not consider the shifting categorizations of young migrants in institutional terms, nor how the stratification of their social rights plays out over place and time. Moreover, current welfare typologies give inadequate attention to the increasing intersection of the labour market and opportunities for regularization, the relative importance and role of the state in the welfare mix, and the nexus of access to welfare and immigration enforcement. This article draws on qualitative longitudinal research in England and Italy to argue that rather than experiencing welfare through the lens of Liberal (England) versus Conservative or Mediterranean (Italy) regimes, unaccompanied young migrants and refugees in these countries are better understood as navigating different systems of ‘iron rod welfare’ and ‘colander welfare’. In England, the nexus between welfare and legal status is policed by an iron rod on one side of which exists a plethora of social rights, but on the other the risk of a proactive detention and deportation regime. In Italy, meanwhile, the holes of the colander denote gaps in protection but also possibilities to navigate alternative welfare strategies independently of the state. The ability to act independently of the state is an important but under-theorized capability for this population, for whom the state is a more ambiguous actor than is traditionally considered in European social policy.

无人陪伴的年轻移民和难民的经历挑战了欧洲共同庇护政策的理念，但也表明，用于解释各州福利差异的传统福利类型未能解释这一群体的生活经历。他们没有从制度的角度考虑年轻移民的分类变化，也没有考虑他们的社会权利的分层如何随着时间和地点的变化而发挥作用。此外，目前的福利类型对劳动力市场与正规化机会的日益交叉、国家在福利组合中的相对重要性和作用以及获得福利和移民执法之间的关系没有给予足够的关注。本文借鉴英格兰和意大利的定性纵向研究，认为这些国家的无人陪伴的年轻移民和难民更好地理解为在不同的系统中航行，而不是通过自由（英格兰）与保守或地中海（意大利）政权的视角来体验福利“铁棒福利”和“滤锅福利”。在英国，福利和法律地位之间的联系受到一根铁棒的监管，铁棒一方面存在过多的社会权利，另一方面存在主动拘留和驱逐制度的风险。与此同时，在意大利，漏勺的洞表示保护方面的差距，但也表示有可能独立于国家制定替代福利策略。