Reintegrating agency, regulation and the economy into histories of child emigration from North West England to Canada, 1860–1930

Abstract

In this article we bring the records of Liverpool‐based child emigration agencies into conversation with the archives of ‘Home’ children held at Libraries and Archives Canada, the Archives of Ontario (Toronto) and the Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto Archives. Our aim is to provide the first study to consider why the North West emerged as the British centre of child emigration during the period 1860–1930, and examine the shared emigration infrastructure between its institutions and agents with those in Canada, through which we hope to advance comparative transnational research into child separation as a feature of welfare systems since the late‐nineteenth century. Our key claims are the following: (1) that children and their families DID challenge, resist and question the system, though not always expressed through their limited ability to give consent to emigration; (2) that the purported welfarist impulses of child emigration schemes were frequently in tension with the everyday administrative and financial concerns that characterised exchanges over child migrants between state and institution, bespeaking a broader economy of child emigration schemes that has thus far been under‐examined in the scholarship.

‘A troublesome girl is pushed through’: Morality, biological determinism, resistance, resilience, and the Canadian child migration schemes, 1883–1939

“…Between these positions was a tentative construction of 'resilience', with a focus on particular kinds of child who showed strength of character and an ability to change (Lynch, 2014;Parr, 1982). Yet other coping mechanisms, such as resistance to emigration and running away, were blamed on their upbringing and dismissed as difficult behaviour, classifying the child as hard to manage and undeserving (Moss, Wildman, and Lamont, 2020;Sims-Schouten, 2020;Sims-Schouten, Skinner, and Rivett, 2019). This article takes a closer look at child migration schemes, in order to paint a more complex picture of its practitioners, their perceptions of which children/young people should be included or excluded from the schemes, and the lives of children sent to the 'land of opportunity'.…”

“…Between these positions was a tentative construction of some children as 'capable' and 'resilient', namely those who showed strength of character and an ability to change (Lynch, 2014;Parr, 1982). Yet other coping mechanisms, such as resistance to emigration and running away, were blamed on their upbringing and hereditary tendencies, leading to them being classed as 'troublesome' and hard to manage and placing them in the 'undeserving' category (Moss, Wildman, and Lamont, 2020;Sims-Schouten, 2020;Sims-Schouten, Skinner, and Rivett, 2019). I argue that the legacy of this complex interplay and nuance between the moral/immoral, desirable/undesirable, degenerate, and capable/ incapable child that guided practice with vulnerable children in the late 1800s can still be seen in safeguarding and mental health support decisions today (Sims-Schouten, 2020;Sims-Schouten, Skinner, and Rivett, 2019).…”

“…the focus on rescuing the child from moral danger) and biological determinism (excluding 'degenerate' children and children with undesirable traits ;Faulkner, 2011;Sims-Schouten, 2020;Swain and Hillel, 2010). Between these positions, there is also a sense of framing of particular kinds of child who were constructed as either capable of change, with strength of character and positive traits, or as hard to manage and difficult (Lynch, 2016;Moss, Wildman, and Lamont, 2020;Parr, 1982). The behaviour of the latter was blamed on their upbringing, rather than the upheaval of emigration, but could also be viewed as a strategy of resistance by children who had few means and methods of recourse (Moss, Wildman, and Lamont, 2020).…”

“…Between these positions, there is also a sense of framing of particular kinds of child who were constructed as either capable of change, with strength of character and positive traits, or as hard to manage and difficult (Lynch, 2016;Moss, Wildman, and Lamont, 2020;Parr, 1982). The behaviour of the latter was blamed on their upbringing, rather than the upheaval of emigration, but could also be viewed as a strategy of resistance by children who had few means and methods of recourse (Moss, Wildman, and Lamont, 2020). Both framings, namely that of the child 'capable of change' and that of the 'hard to manage child', may have been early signs of reflecting what is now referred to as 'resilience'.…”

Indian child migration in the British Empire

“…Indeed, there is a rich body of literature, popular and scholarly, on the migration of children from Britain to Australia, where these children have invariably been described as ‘children of the empire’ 1 . Concerns about the subjection of child migrants in the British Empire has focused on abuse and exploitation of the white child migrant in institutions such as workhouses, charitable institutions and prisons (e.g., Moss et al., 2021). Other points of foci relating to mobile children in the British Empire have been on institutions such as scouting and guides (Alexander, 2017; Dillenburg, 2019; Paisley, 2007).…”