Independent Child Migrations E-Book

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Bildung
• Serie: J-B CAD Single Issue Child & Adolescent Development
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 214

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012

Beschreibung

Explore the complexities of international independent child migration. This volume gives particular focus to agency and vulnerability as central concepts for understanding the diverse experiences of children who have migrated alone. Combining perspectives from academics and practitioners, the volume is filled with thought-provoking insights into the nature of current programmatic interventions for independent child migrants. It further invites critical reflection on the complex socio-economic, political, and cultural contexts in which migration decisions are taken. Contributors recognize that independent child migrants, despite vulnerabilities, are active decision-makers in determining movement, responding to violent and discriminatory situations, resisting stereotypical assumptions, and figuring out integration and life choices as these are shaped by existing structural opportunities and constraints. This is the 136th volume in this series. Its mission is to provide scientific and scholarly presentations on cutting edge issues and concepts in child and adolescent development. Each volume focuses on a specific new direction or research topic and is edited by experts on that topic.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Cover

Title page

Copyright page

Chapter 1: Vulnerable Yet Agentic: Independent Child Migrants and Opportunity Structures

Introduction

On the Contributions

Chapter 2: Tactical Maneuvering and Calculated Risks: Independent Child Migrants and the Complex Terrain of Flight

Introduction

Moving Beyond Extremes: Social Navigation and the Art of Motion within Motion

Methodology

Navigating Flight: Decision-Making and Strategies for Survival

Conclusion

Chapter 3: Beyond Compartmentalization: A Relational Approach Towards Agency and Vulnerability of Young Migrants

Introduction

Context and Methodology

Beyond Compartmentalization: Fluid and Institutionalized Forms of Migration by Young People

Becoming a Young Migrant: The Importance of Networks

Accessing Institutionalized Forms of Migration: Migrating Through Recruitment Agencies

Accessing Fluid Migration: From Parent-Based Networks to Peer Recruitment, and Recruitment by Unrelated Adults

Conclusion: Agency and Vulnerability in Migration at a Young Age

Chapter 4: When Children Seek Asylum from Their Parents: A Canadian Case Study

Introduction

How Common Is this Phenomenon?

The Case: A.M.R.I. v. K.E.R.

Protection Under the Hague Convention

Protection Under the Refugee Convention

The Court of Appeal Decision in A.M.R.I. v. K.E.R.: Reconciling the Two Conventions

Recommendations Arising from A.M.R.I. v. K.E.R.

Conclusion

Chapter 5: Between Empowerment and Powerlessness: Separated Minors in Sweden

Introduction

Theory and Conceptual Framework

Method

The Reception of Separated Minors in Sweden

Living with Separation and Flight

Dislocation

Without Property

Between Empowerment and Powerlessness

Discussion

Chapter 6: Vulnerability and Agency: Beyond an Irreconcilable Dichotomy for Social Service Providers Working with Young Refugees in the UK

Introduction

Methodology

Young Refugees’ Experiences of Social Services Support

Beyond the Vulnerability–Agency Dichotomy: Conclusions and Recommendations

Chapter 7: Conclusions, Reflections, and Prospects for Future Research, Policy, and Programming

Introduction: Independent Child Migration as a Complex Phenomenon

Challenges of Definition and Categorization

Beyond “Vulnerables” Discourses: Agency, Structure, and Power in Independent Child Migration

Attention to Decision-Making Processes

Networks

Family and Gender Relations

Methodological Approaches

Index

OTHER TITLES AVAILABLE IN THE NEW DIRECTIONS FOR CHILD AND ADOLESCENT DEVELOPMENT SERIES

INDEPENDENT CHILD MIGRATION—INSIGHTS INTO AGENCY, VULNERABILITY, AND STRUCTURE

Aida Orgocka, Christina Clark-Kazak (eds.)

New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, no. 136

Lene Arnett Jensen, Reed W. Larson, Editors-in-Chief

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1

Vulnerable Yet Agentic: Independent Child Migrants and Opportunity Structures

Aida Orgocka

The author thanks Christina Clark-Kazak and Reed Larson for their constructive feedback on earlier drafts of this chapter. The discussion on compartmentalization of independent child migration was borrowed from an earlier draft of Roy Huijsmans’s contribution to this volume.

AbstractWhile agency and vulnerability have been central organizing concepts in analyzing independent child migration, studying these in isolation from the opportunity structures that define it provides only a partial picture of its occurrence. In introducing the five contributions to this volume, this chapter argues that agentic capacities emerge and interact across a spectrum of contextual influences that may undermine or promote these. Although most contributions offer insight from forced migration, they illustrate the fluidity of migration processes in general. This chapter also calls to move beyond compartmentalized approaches and oversimplified structural categories such as chronological age to describe independent child migration.

Introduction

Research on children and young people who migrate independently of their immediate family has been steadily gaining momentum in the past twenty years. Explanations into why this type of migration occurs have varied in terms of the main push-pull factors that drive children toward receiving countries and barriers that would deter them from migrating, including poverty, natural and human-made disasters, most notably conflict and war, family reunification, and search for better life opportunities (e.g., Ansell & van Blerk, 2004; Hashim & Thorsen, 2011; Orgocka, 2010; Punch, 2008). Reviews and fieldwork have considered the extent to which children may demand migration opportunities, and how this demand may be met partly with forms of movement specific to children (Clark-Kazak, 2011; Yaqub, 2009). Initiatives that focus on mapping the extent of the phenomenon, research, and policy responses have been in motion (e.g., Chavez & Menjívar, 2010; Ensor & Godziak, 2010; Kanics, Senovilla-Hernández, & Touzenis, 2010). Such initiatives have clearly demonstrated the importance of studying children involved in migration in their own right as agents of their development, as well as powerful players in influencing the lives of their families, communities, and societies of countries of origin and destination.

Following on this path, this volume presents theoretical and empirical papers that raise questions related to processes that link children’s independent migration to their individual development and expression of agency. What opportunities do children perceive or create as they ponder the decision to migrate? To what degree are children involved in individual and collective migration decisions? What are the relative abilities/disabilities of children in generating, deploying, and stewarding the different types of resources necessary to migrate independently? What sorts of challenges do they overcome, and how? How does legal and social protection, as well as administrative procedures they encounter in the receiving countries, define the migration enterprise for children? While providing answers to these questions may transcend the scope of one edited volume, they all point to the salience of understanding empirically the active role children and young people play in determining the path of their own development in the contexts they encounter.

Defined as the ability to exert one’s will and to act in the world through setting goals, agency includes aspects of independence and autonomy (Boem, Hess, Coe, Rae-Espinoza, & Reynolds, 2011; Larson & Angus, 2011, but see also Bandura, 1989; Schwartz, Côté, & Arnett, 2005). Research shows that in the case of migrant children and young people, these are often linked to the motivations of children to migrate. For example, in her study of trafficked children in the U.S., Godziak (2008) found that trafficked children were highly motivated to come to the U.S. in the hope of earning money to be sent home or to pay smuggling fees. These motivations did not change as they were rescued. Children were reluctant to see themselves as victims, a contrary view held by social service providers, often because the law conceptualizes them as such.

Indeed, independent child migrants are often conceptualized within a discourse of vulnerability. For example, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) categorizes unaccompanied minors as a particular group of “vulnerables” (Clark, 2007). While this designation is intended to prioritize assistance, it can lead to “victimcy” (Utas, 2004, p. 209), whereby young people deliberately portray themselves as vulnerable victims in order to benefit from international aid (see also Clark-Kazak, 2009). The contributions to this volume similarly show that vulnerability and agency are not mutually exclusive. Depending on their perceptions of self-efficacy, young people can exercise their agency to identify and seek solutions to situations of vulnerability.

Personal attributes, behaviors, and decisions notwithstanding, a broad network of political, social, cultural, and economic structures can play a role in either facilitating or blocking attempts to behave in an agentic manner. Defining the type of moves children and young people engage in and the restrictions imposed on who may be considered child migrants nationally and internationally affect the manner in which children and young people take a subject position and use multiple and strategic ways to resist or co-opt these structures(for a summary review see Huijsmans, 2011). For example, it is no surprise to learn that asylum seekers, including children, do not settle in the first country that offers sanctuary from violence and persecution, but the country that offers the best benefits (see, e.g., Derluyn & Broekaert, 2005, on how Belgium is used as a transit country by child migrants). In host countries, such tendency has bred a prevalent course of thinking that distinguishes between genuine asylum seekers and bogus asylum seekers, otherwise classified as economic migrants. Watters (2007, 2011) refers to a moral economy of care that provides an overarching context in which legitimate and illegitimate asylum seekers and refugees are identified. In fact, it is the configuration of legislation and policies in receiving countries that create avenues of access (Watters, 2001) for asylum seekers, including young people who create spaces for their cases to be heard. Thus, this introductory chapter and the contributions suggest that a more nuanced look into how young people manage their migration experiences in their encounter with various contexts leads us to understand the expression of agency as a process of self-identity formation and articulation.

In describing local, national, and international moves young people engage in, overwhelmingly contributions in this volume use the term independent child migration to include all independent movements of children from their current resident location for a period longer than one month across localities and borders. Although terms such as separated minors, unaccompanied minors, and trafficked children are common in research and policy-making, these strip child and youth migrants of any agentic capacities to determine the path of their development and individualization. To be sure, there are scenarios in which children and young people may exercise limited choice to migrate, following paths of least resistance and effort that leave them little prepared for what comes ahead. Indeed, asymmetric familial power relations and limited socio-economic opportunities constrain “choice” involved in the type of migration decisions taken. Given complex individual and collective livelihood strategies, mixed motivations that may constrain children’s agentic capacities in action are likely involved. That families (especially parents) play a key role in mediating decisions to leave is particularly salient in the case of refugee children. In their study of refugee children in the UK, Candappa and Igbinigie (2003) related that not all of the children were aware that the catalyst for flight was that they were in personal danger. For example, some children had been told by their parents that they were leaving home for their education. One of these children had been shielded from the knowledge of the political situation in her home country to the extent that she only found out about it from reading a newspaper article two years after her arrival in Britain. However, others were all too aware of the political situation that had caused them to flee their homes.

These findings notwithstanding, research that associates independent migration of children to smuggling and trafficking, while valid in its own right, can be limiting. Children themselves may come up with resources, mechanisms interlinked to family ones to such an extent that many children’s independent movements across borders would be difficult to consider adequately within a trafficking/criminal lens, rather than a broader migration/development lens (see Yaqub, 2009). Relying on such resources, young migrants may pursue opportunities that lead to self-improvement independent of fixed notions that set expectations on what a child and/or young person may do at a certain age or contextual circumstance. By such decisions to resist or challenge dominant expectations and understandings, they not only challenge middle-class Western ideals about childhood as a time of dependency and innocence during which children are socialized by adults to become competent social actors, but also position themselves as a solution to the various challenges related to improving their own life opportunities and show that they are not always sent away because their families cannot afford to raise them.

In this process, peers may play an important role. When children and young people migrate independently, they leave behind the social networks such as family and community ties that may provide a traditional framework for support to their development (cf. Bossin & Demirdache, in this volume). However, it is most likely that children and young people not only will make decisions based on information provided by peer networks (e.g., Orgocka, 2010), but they will find new social networks that may help/hinder the process of migration and adjustment, thus influencing the ecology of the migrating children. In refugee settings, for example, peer groups function as surrogate families even in cases when youth reestablish relationships with surviving members of their biological families (Clark-Kazak, 2011).

Although most contributions to this volume focus on refugee children and young people, boundaries between what classifies as forced versus voluntary are rather blurry. Perceptions of children themselves involved in the migration enterprise point to the complexity of categorizing their movement as solely trafficking, illegal, or economic migration. Compartmentalization in relation to young migrants is also evident from limited interaction between work on migration in relation to what are considered age-appropriate activities such as education (Hamann, Zúñiga, & Sánchez García, 2010) and age-inappropriate ones such as work (de Lange, 2007); traditional forms of migration such as fosterage (Notermans, 2008) and modern migration practices relating to lifestyle and consumption (Punch, 2007); young people migrating as part of families (Bushin, 2009), left behind by their migrating parents (Graham & Jordan, forthcoming), and young people migrating independently (Yaqub, 2009); and work on young people’s migration in the Global North (Ackers & Stalford, 1999; Ní Laoire, Capena-Méndez, Tyrrell, & White, 2011) versus young people’s migration in the Global South (Whitehead & Hashim, 2005). In recognition of this emerging critique of the artificiality of “forced” and “voluntary” migration binary (Al-Ali, Black, & Koser, 2001; Ostergaard-Nielsen, 2003; Mazzucato, 2005; van Hear, 2006), a broad interpretation of migration is particularly relevant to the study of independent child migration.

In addition, stark differences in viewpoints are likely to produce alternate conceptualizations of children in migration enterprises. Perceptions of what is culturally perceived as one type of movement versus another often clash with the policy understandings of who is a migrant child in need of protection and these play a crucial role in how we define children in migration processes. The term “child” at the same time refers to an age-related category, or relational or status role. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) defines an unaccompanied child as: “under the age of 18 … and who is separated from both parents and is not being cared for by an adult who, by law or custom, is responsible to do so” (UNHCR, 1997). While this definition is useful in allocating services and resources to protecting children finding themselves in vulnerable situations derived from an unaccompanied move, it does little in terms of differentiating the many different dynamics involved in the various age groups.

To complement chronological age, social age refers to the socially constructed meanings and roles attributed to different stages in the life cycle, as well as dynamic intra- and inter-generational power relations (Clark-Kazak, 2009). In this way, the distinction between biological development (approximated by chronological age) and social age is analogous to the difference between sex and gender. The concept of social age builds on an established body of academic literature, which has demonstrated that the meanings attributed to biological development have varied across time (Ariès, 1979; Cunningham, 1995; deMause, 1974) and place (Ariès, 1979; Cunningham, 1995; deMause, 1974; James & Prout, 1997). Indeed, social psychologists have challenged approaches that promote universality of human development by arguing that social factors are fundamental to rather than mere variables in development processes (Rogoff, 1990; Rogoff & Chavajay, 1995; Woodhead, 1997). The contributors to this volume use social age to contextualize children and young people’s migration experiences within shifting interpersonal, social, economic, political, and geographic power relationships in dynamic, cross-cultural migration contexts.

On the Contributions

Each of the chapters in this volume grapples with the concepts of agency and vulnerability in the context of opportunity structures. Despite drawing on different frameworks, they make three similar points: (1) agency in independent child migration must be contextualized; (2) in any decision to migrate there are at least moments of agency; and (3) vulnerability introduced through chartering uncertain/unknown terrains materialized as legal, social, or administrative structures may constrain the agentic possibilities of young migrants.

In their chapter, Denov and Bryan use social navigation to analyze young people’s strategies, tactical maneuvers, and calculated risks in the context of flight and resettlement to Canada. They rightly point to the fact that children’s actions are shaped and respond to particular social contexts in which they find themselves as they migrate. In the process of migration, children and youth navigate systems of power that they do not completely overcome, thus implying that decisions taken are time-, space-, and context-bound.

Huijsmans’s contribution shows how young people become young migrants focusing particularly on their agency in networks of recruitment. Based on fieldwork research from Lao People’s Democratic Republic, this chapter introduces the notions of fluid and institutionalized forms of migration as an analytical framework transcending compartmentalized approaches towards migration involving young people. Of particular interest in this contribution is a discussion of the need to move beyond analyzing occurrence of child migration as defined by static factors (such as chronological age, destination, and purpose of migration) towards the relational fabric underpinning diverse migration scenarios and shaping young migrants’ agency.

Three chapters in this volume relate findings focusing on the interaction between migrant children and young people, and the political and legal apparatus of receiving states. While these three contributions have different angles, they all direct us to think in terms of how legislation, policies, and programs alternatively assist or hinder young people’s successful transition to adulthood in the face of contexts of uncertainty. These studies find that policies that are designed with the view to serve the best interests of the child may at times play against children.

Bossin and Demirdache analyze the legal implications of the phenomenon of children seeking asylum from alleged abuse by one or both parent(s) in their country of origin. The chapter argues that family members may be the source of vulnerabilities for child migrants, thereby undermining the presumption that family reunification demanded by international legal instruments is always in the best interests of independent child migrants. In fact, whether this configuration of laws and policies is adequate and is serving the best interests of migrants has been the concern of numerous human rights organizations. As the authors imply, thinking critically about international conventions and laws, and national legislative framework and practices does not suggest that they may not protect refugee children, but when these are forwarded to formally justify a decision to return these children to contexts that do little to improve their life opportunities, we need to ask whose best interests are being served.

Gustafsson, Fioretos, and Norström bring perspectives of independent child migrants in Sweden. Anchoring their research on the experiences of encounter between young people as migrants and the host society, they explore how self-identities are shaped through access to and use of social and material resources. For some children and young people, maximizing or mobilizing such particular resources in order to form and articulate their self identities can be quite a struggle leading to a life in limbo. Expectations of case workers and ad litem foster carers regarding the doings and achievements of refugee children within the limitations afforded by these resources play a significant role in this process. The chapter calls for a reflection upon the significance and importance of space allowed young people to use social and material resources in the process of their identity formation and articulation.

Similarly, O’Higgins explores the differential experiences of refugee young people in encountering the social protection system in the UK and proposes recommendations for practice. For many migrants and refugees in the European Union (EU), the UK is their “promised land,” as they perceive the UK to offer favorable employment opportunities, along with other attractions, such as better benefit payments, better access to healthcare, and better social conditions than other EU states. In addition, the existence of ethnic communities or the presence of a family member in the UK who can provide support and employment appeal to many migrants (Derluyn & Broekaert, 2005, pp. 34, 43–44). However, perceptions and realities may not always coincide. O’Higgins’s research calls us to examine more carefully our understanding of adolescents’ capability to exercise agency in the face of vulnerabilities related to their status as refugees. Evoking a participatory approach to listening and considering the views of refugee youths, O’Higgins offers insight into how social workers’ understandings of refugee youths’ vulnerabilities and agencies shape sociolegal spaces in which entitlement to assessment and care is exercised. She calls for a reform that takes into consideration young people’s own definition of their experiences in encountering and benefitting from what social protection and care warrant them.

While calling for improvements in the legal, social protection, and administrative procedures, these three contributions come from the perspective of countries in the North. Considering that significant child migration, including forced migration, occurs in the countries in the Global South, silence on the issue is unjustified. Challenges are obvious yet relentlessly missing from research. For example, legal protection, even when rightly formulated, may encounter challenges when being enforced. Social services with specialized and individualized resources may be harder to come by in countries already struggling to make the best allocation of resources to meet the urgent needs of their own populations including education, health, and protection. Research into how policy practices in countries in the Global South impact the agentic actions and increase vulnerability of independent child migrants is needed.

The volume concludes with a chapter highlighting the key themes that emerge from the five contributions and proposing future directions for research, policy, and programming in response to the independent migration of children and young people. This contribution by Christina Clark-Kazak outlines the challenges of categorization; alternatives to the “vulnerables” discourse; the importance of paying attention to individual and collective migration decisions; and the need for more research that explores the wider social networks of independent child migrants.

In summary, the work presented in this volume not only reiterates conclusions of current research, but provides avenues in the study of independent child migration for the future. By examining issues of agency and vulnerability among children and young people in various relationships, and legal and institutional contexts, these contributions aim to demystify the migrant child as a vulnerable human often being a victim of circumstances and/or adults’ decisions; instead, the views offered suggest that children and young people, despite vulnerabilities, are active decision-makers in determining movement, fighting off the odds of violent realities, resisting stereotypical assumptions and figuring out integration and life choices as these are shaped by existing opportunity structures. To paraphrase and apply Côté’s (2002; cited in Schwartz, Côté, & Arnett, 2005) observation to independent child migrants and the social structures they navigate, we need to recognize that many young migrants can cope with and even overcome certain obstacles; doing otherwise, we risk maintaining a patronizing view of the very people whom we seem dedicated to helping.

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