This paper begins by recounting a tale of two Sophias: a humanoid robot and an ‘illegal’ baby immigrant. The tale of two Sophias locates my initial ideas for reflecting on how critical posthumanism might contribute to youth work theory and practice. In this paper I position youth work as a philosophical encounter, whilst also questioning the humanist legacy that lies at the heart of youth work theory. Drawing on the work of Rosi Braidotti and other critical posthuman feminists, I consider how youth work might respond to the posthuman predicament marked by the intersecting forces of advanced capitalism and growing inequalities, the fourth industrial revolution, the digital divide, and advances in Artificial Intelligence, climate change, and environmental destruction. I conclude by providing some reflections on how critical posthuman theory may provide a lens through which young people might consider what it means to be human in the technologically mediated Anthropocene, and also as a paradigm for embracing new possibilities and a praxis of hope.

Since the late 1990’s unaccompanied minors have crossed the Mediterranean in search of refuge and the possibility of building a viable future, including access to work to support themselves and their families. This paper draws on qualitative research with young asylum seekers who arrived in Malta as unaccompanied minors. It centres their voices to explore how they perceive and navigate their transition to adulthood, with a particular focus on the transition to employment and how this is shaped by legislation, policy, and service provision. Using an interpretative phenomenological approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with six young people. Participants’ narratives reveal resilience in the face of severe adversity, alongside experiences of being “rescued” into a system experienced as another form of confinement. Their efforts to access work are shaped by a punishing border apparatus that produces ongoing precarity, including unemployment, homelessness, and informal or exploitative labour. In the absence of consistent care and meaningful access to rights, participants are compelled to be self-sufficient while navigating uncertain and constrained pathways into employment. Reconnecting with the critical and creative use of metaphor that has animated scholarship on youth transitions, this paper further develops the metaphorical framework of ‘fugitive transitions’ to understand the experiences of unaccompanied young asylum seekers. In doing so, it challenges established notions of transitions to adulthood that are grounded in assumptions of citizenship and legal belonging. Specifically, we apply this framework to examine transitions into employment, exploring how unaccompanied young asylum seekers navigate precarious pathways to work while negotiating the legal, social, and structural constraints that shape their opportunities and aspirations.