160 Pages
    by Routledge

    160 Pages
    by Routledge

    This book challenges the adult-centric tendencies of migration research and policy which often overlooks children and young people’s own experiences of migration. A wide range of international contributors provide careful analysis of the situations of children in contemporary transnational migratory contexts in the Global North and South.

    Drawing on studies with migrant children and young people in a variety of situations, Transnational Migration and Childhood makes a unique contribution to furthering our understandings of transnational childhoods. It explores the laws and policies that govern children and young people’s experiences of transnational migration whilst foregrounding their own accounts of migration and transnationalism. The book shifts our attention away from dominant discourses of migrant children as ‘victims’, towards the development of broader conceptualisations of transnational migration and childhood. It incorporates different migratory flows, a variety of sending and receiving contexts, and child-centred perspectives. Transnational Migration and Childhood will be of interest to researchers and policy makers working in the fields of migration, asylum, and childhood at local, national, and transnational scales.

    This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.

    1. Introduction: Children’s Roles in Transnational Migration Allen White, University College Cork, Ireland, Caitríona Ní Laoire, University College Cork, Ireland, Naomi Tyrrell, Plymouth University, UK, Fina Carpena-Méndez, Oregon State University, USA

    2. ‘Asexual, Apolitical Beings’: The Interpretation of Children’s Identities and Experiences in the UK Asylum System Heaven Crawley, Swansea University, UK

    3. In the Best Interest of the Child? The Politics of Vulnerability and Negotiations for Asylum in Sweden Marita Eastmond, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, Henry Ascher, University of Gothenburg, Sweden

    4. Making Connections: Second Generation Children and the Transnational Field of Relations Lotta Haikkola, University of Helsinki, Finland

    5. ‘They Told Us in a Curry Shop’: Child-Adult Relations in the Context of Family Migration Decision-Making Teresa Hutchins, World Vision Australia

    6. Tampering with the Sex of ‘Angels’: Migrant Male Minors and Young Adults Selling Sex in the EU Nick Mai, London Metropolitan University, UK

    7. Narratives of ‘Innocent Irish Childhoods’: Return Migration and Intergenerational Family Dynamics Caitríona Ní Laoire, University College Cork, Ireland

    8. Divergent Discourses, Children and Forced Migration Giorga Doná, University of East London, UK, Angela Veale, University College Cork, Ireland

    9. Conclusion: Future Directions in Research on Transnational Migration and Childhood Naomi Tyrrell, Plymouth University, UK, Allen White, University College Cork, Ireland, Caitríona Ní Laoire, University College Cork, Ireland, Fina Carpena-Méndez, Oregon State University, USA

    Biography

    Naomi Tyrrell (formerly Bushin) is a Lecturer in Human Geography at Plymouth University, UK. Her research focuses on processes of child and family migration in Europe. Previous publications include The Changing faces of Ireland: Exploring the Lives of Immigrant and Ethnic Minority Children.

    Allen White is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Geography, University College Cork, Ireland. His research interests lie in the intersection between transnational migration, children, asylum and social and political geographies. Previous publications include Migrations: Ireland in a Global World.

    Caitríona Ní Laoire is a social geographer at the Institute for Social Sciences in the 21st Century at University College Cork. Her research interests include migration, childhood and youth. Previous publications include Childhood and Migration in Europe: Portraits of Mobility, Identity and Belonging in Contemporary Ireland.

    Fina Carpena-Méndez is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Oregon State University. Her research focuses on the effects of neoliberal globalization on the condition of children’s lives. Previous publications include Childhood and Migration in Europe: Portraits of Mobility, Identity and Belonging in Contemporary Ireland.

    "The collection of articles with the title Transnational Migration and Childhood fills important gaps in the knowledge on children migration. With interdisciplinary approaches and from different critical scholarly perspectives, several key issues are being dealt with and prevailing conceptions deconstructed, not only on children’s migration, but also in the broader research on migration and childhood."— Kristina Toplak, Anthropoogical Notebooks