1st Edition
Child Migration and Biopolitics Old and New Experiences in Europe
This book provides a fresh interdisciplinary analysis into the lives of migrant children and youth over the course of the twentieth century and up to the present day. Adopting biopolitics as a theoretical framework, the authors examine the complex interplay of structures, contexts and relations of power which influence the evolution of child migration across national borders. The volume also investigates children’s experiences, views, priorities and expectations and their roles as active agents in their own migration.
Using a great variety of methodologies (archival research, ethnographic observation, interviews) and sources (drawings, documents produced by governments and experts, films and press), the authors provide richly documented case studies which cover a wide geographical area within Europe, both West (Belgium, France, Germany) and East (Romania, Russia, Ukraine), South (Italy, Portugal, Turkey) and North (Sweden), enabling a deep understanding of the diversity of migrant childhoods in the European context.
1. Childhood, Migration and Biopolitics in Modern European History
Beatrice Scutaru & Simone Paoli
Part I: Displacement
2. The Little People of the Exodus. French Children’s Experiences of War Mobility in Spring 1940
Camille Mahé
3. The (Bio)Politics of Relief: UN Food Policy Towards Displaced Children in Post-War Germany (1945-49)
Katherine Rossy
4. Catholic Humanitarianism and Transnational Adoptions of Orphaned Indian Youth (Belgium, 1970-1984)
Chiara Candaele
5. “Unaccompanied Children Who Disappear.” Precariously Mobile Children and the Humanitarian Regime of Deportation in Sweden
Maline Holmlund
Part II: Retention
6. “To Build and Be Built:” Jewish Displaced Children in Post-War Italy, 1943–48
Chiara Renzo
7. The Never Forgotten Romanian Children. Biopolitics, Humanitarian Aid and International Adoption
Luciana Marioara Jinga
8. Children on the Move in Europe, Between Biopolitics and Human Rights Protection
Snejana Sulima
9. Imprisoned to “Zoē”: Survival of Unaccompanied and Undocumented Afghan Minors in Istanbul
Nihan Bozok & Mehmet Bozok
Part III: Repatriation
10. The Portuguese State and its Emigrants: Policy and Practices in the Repatriation of Minors
Yvette Santos
11. Custody Battles for Unaccompanied Children of Presumed Ukrainian Origin under the UNRRA’s/IRO’s Care, 1945-49
Olga Gnydiuk
12. Biopolitics, the State, and Displacements of Children in France between the End of World War II and the Fall of the Empire, 1945-1970
Yves Denéchère
13. Child Migration Governance as Biopolitics: New Perspectives on Vulnerability and the Child’s Best Interest
Beatrice Scutaru & Simone Paoli
Biography
Beatrice Scutaru is an Assistant Professor in European History at the School of History and Geography within Dublin City University. Her research lies at the intersection between Migration and Childhood studies, with a special focus on the Cold War and Intra-European mobility.
Simone Paoli is an Assistant Professor of History of International Relations at the Department of Political Science of the University of Pisa. His research interests focus on the history of European integration and Euro-Mediterranean relations, with an emphasis on education and migration issues.
