“Com dezoito vai ter que sair” : a idade como único critério para o desacolhimento institucional

Abstract

Institutional Sheltering in Brazil is established as one of the main protective measures in force by the Child and Adolescent Statute (1990). It is applied to all those who, for numerous reasons, were considered to be in violation of rights. Despite its brevity characteristic, the fostering of children and adolescents can occur for longer periods, leading to consequences, as the withdrawal from the Institution when they reach the majority (eighteen years), changing their status from sheltered to egresses fromnthe protection system. Therefore, the main objective of the present research is to understand how the establishment of an age marker can produce effects on the life course of those who went through withdrawal at the age of eighteen. This subject will be analyzed from a theoretical point of view of the Anthropology of Ages, especially observing the discussion in the literature on age transitions. As research methodology, I carried out a qualitative approach, applying semi-structured interviews, in addition to informal conversations and field observations carried out through the monitoring of an audiovisual production. The participants in this research were people who stayed in shelter institutions until they reached the age of majority and professionals who work around the theme of withdrawal. The research was executed in the city of Porto Alegre (RS), with a total of thirteen participants. As main research results, it was possible to identify that the establishment of an age criterion as the only marker has not been sufficient to effectively guarantee the foreseen rights of the target publi for whom the protection system is intended. The gradual preparation assumed as a transition from dependence to autonomy seems to be impacted by different adversities, such as institutional dependence, the difficulty of entering the labor market and the lack of vacancies in republics. Faced with this helplessness, throughout the institutional transition to acceptance, the social and affective networks constructed by the subjects have been shown to be one of the main mechanisms for coping with the structural constraints that arise with the arrival of eighteen years of age. Finally, I highlight the establishment of an age marker as imbued with ideologies that tend to reinforce a normative and homogenizing character, conceiving age as a sufficient factor and starting mainly from associations historically attributed to young people, without considering, however, their subjectivities and particularities arising from of each person and each context.