Lost boys (populations)

For other uses, see Lost Boys.

Lost Boys is a term used for groups or populations of young men who, after losing their families, appear to have become "surplus" or unattached to society, with no defined role or stable support in life. They may have to band together and even resort to violence to survive.

In the West

Main article: Lost boys (Mormon fundamentalism)

The term has traditionally been used in the USA to describe young men expelled from polygamous fundamentalist Mormon communities like the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, while their sisters are married off to Mormon elders as plural wives. The Lost Boys must then start a new life in the outside world, which they often find very difficult to do.

There is no public support for criminalizing the practice of fundamentalist Mormon communities of expelling their surplus males, thereby increasing the surplus of males over females outside these communities. However, there have been legal efforts to limit the abuse of fundamentalist Mormon girls and women in their marriages to often much older men.

In the Third World

In Africa, the term describes orphans and former child soldiers whose female relatives were slaughtered, became sex slaves, or polygamous wives, like happened to the sisters and mothers of the Lost Boys of Sudan and elsewhere.

Some Lost Boys may become part of the male immigration surplus and migrate to Western countries where they may start better lives, for example many Afghan refugees, or refugees of the Syrian Civil War, or refugees of Iraq. Other Lost Boys were brought to the USA under special immigration programs approved by President George W. Bush, with the assistance of evangelical and other church organizations. However, having been desocialized after losing their families, many Lost Boys have experienced problems adapting to life in the West.

Very few "Lost Girls" were sent to the USA.

Left-wing and far-left commentators have strongly praised the resettlement program, as in the 2004 PBS documentary "The Lost Boys of Sudan". Right-wing and far-right critics have long condemned the resettlement (and other forms of male-surplus adoption) as a form of population replacement and a contribution to an alleged ongoing white genocide, though they admit that is not the direct purpose of the program, and that supporters are driven by philanthropic feelings.

Similar problems with unattached young men are found in many Islamic and traditional African countries.