‘The problem is that I don’t know’ – Agency and life projects of transnational migrant children and young people in England and Spain

Abstract

This article discusses the life projects of migrant children and young people in England and Spain and illustrates the importance of exploring family dynamics, contextual legal constraints, and 'transnational uncertainties' as part of young migrants' ideas about the future. It reflects on the dilemma posed by acknowledging the agency of migrant children in relation to their future while at the same time considering the constraints they meet as minors and migrants within a broader family and societal context.

Negotiating developmental projects: Unaccompanied Afghan refugee boys in Norway

“…A growing body of research has focused on the significant position of transnational ties in the country of origin in the future aspirations of migrant children (e.g. Jørgensen, 2017), but as our study illustrates, for the particular group of unaccompanied minors, it is difficult to gain acknowledgment of such aspirations. Why are the childcare workers reluctant to help the boys in pursuing the project of helping their families in their country of origin?…”

Children’s Behavioral Agency within Families in the Context of Migration: A Systematic Review

“…Both children’s and parents’ perspectives (parent–child dyads) need to be included. Migrant children and young people have recognized their dependency on their families and the decisions made by their parents, either economically, role modeling, or in other ways; and children’s formal and legal dependency on parents would end with their age approaching 18 (Rübner Jørgensen, 2016 ). Children’s age is still an important factor when examining the parental influence on children’s agency.…”

Young migrants’ narratives of collective identifications and belonging

“…Having examined how young migrants’ identifications are narrated along the allegiance to their motherlands, but also to shared religious, cultural and historic legacies, this section unpacks the situated and dialogical processes through which belonging comes to be experienced and articulated. Notably, several studies have documented how the legal, political and institutional context in host countries crucially affect migrants’ modes of integration, with the latter being shaped inter alia by migration and citizenship policies and civil society’s attitudes (Brubaker, 2001; Hatziprokopiou, 2003; Jørgensen, 2017; Ní Laoire et al, 2011; Thomson and Crul, 2007). The centrality of state-ascribed otherness to young migrants’ sense of belonging feature centrally in the narratives of this study’s participants.…”

“…Furthermore, the struggle to belong that young migrants experience is mediated by informal processes of ‘othering’ and racialization, working in conjunction with the legal and institutional regimes of host societies (Jørgensen, 2017; Ní Laoire et al, 2011; Yuval-Davis et al, 2005). The case of Dimitri is illustrative in that respect, with the young man identifying himself as a foreigner, a marginalized member of Greek society, despite his 14-year-long residence in Greece and his evolving allegiances to the country: I like it here too; I love Greece but not as much as Georgia.…”