“Why are we put in prison?”– Independent Guatemalan minor migrants’ experiences of transnational childhoods

Abstract

Given that state migration and deportation regimes deeply influence transnationally lived childhoods and youth, this article draws on findings from three months of ethnographic research carried out at a Guatemalan state shelter for deported migrant minors in 2009. During the research, I conducted participant observation as well as semi-structured in-depth interviews with 28 adolescents, aged 14-18. Drawings were further used as a child-centered research method. This contribution aims to demonstrate how independent child migrants perceive the special protection measures they receive in the scope of state assistance as sanctioning and blaming of their agency. Against this background, ambiguous approaches are identified in the case of US, Mexican, and Guatemalan state interventions concerning repatriated minors. Hence, I call for further child-centered qualitative research and the prioritization of child migrants' perspectives in state policies for these young actors.

‘If we want, they help us in any way’: how ‘unaccompanied refugee minors’ experience mentoring relationships

“…Kaukko & Wernesjö, 2017;Söderqvist, Sjöblom, & Bülow, 2016), as well as in care and protection institutions in the context of (forced) re-migration and deportation (e.g. Thompson, Torres, Swanson, Blue, & Hernández Hernández, 2019;Dietrich, 2015;Robinson & Williams, 2015). Likewise, aspects related to life course transitions have been highlighted in empirical studies (Trott, 2018a;Ghaeminia, Ghorashi, & Crul, 2017) or in conceptual papers (Kohli, 2014).…”

The Stilled-Other of the Citizen. “Roma Beggars” and Regimes of (Im)mobility in an Austrian City

“…(ibid) Research following this line of thought focuses on zones (Squire 2010; Schulze Wessel 2017), e.g. transit zones, on camps (Dietrich 2015;Ilcan 2013) and shelters (Solano 2017), and other installations of control, selection, regulation and enablement, both of movement and fixation, including extended, extra-territorial and remote forms of migration control (Gaibazzi et al 2017).…”

Returning to their roots: Examining the reintegration experiences of returned Indigenous migrant youth in Guatemala

“…The acceleration of youth migration has produced a new set of quandaries regarding child migrants’ rights and well-being. While young migrants receive some protection according to child welfare laws, they are simultaneously treated as criminals who have immigrated illegally and are subject to removal proceedings just like adults (Carlson and Gallagher, 2015; Dietrich, 2015). Migration to the United States has long been studied in various scholarly disciplines, yet the amount of literature on youth migrants’ post-deportation experiences remains limited.…”