Transnational Migration and Childhood

Naomi Tyrrell · Allen White · Caitriona Ni Laoire · Fina Carpena Mendez

Sep 2013 · Routledge

About this ebook

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.

About the author

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.