Re-conceptualising agency in migrant children from Central America and Mexico

Bibliographic Data

ID3645973
AuthorsAmy Thompson (0009-0007-3999-8778, The University of Texas at Austin, corresponding author), Rebecca Maria Torres (0000-0001-8634-6894, The University of Texas at Austin), Kate Swanson (0000-0002-3591-1782, San Diego State University), Sarah A Blue (0000-0001-9044-4737, Texas State University), Oscar Misael Hernández-Hernández (0000-0002-5882-8789, Universidad de Matamoros), Óscar Misael Hernández Hernández (COLEF-Matamoros, Matamoros, Mexico)
Year2019
Volume45
Issue2
Pages235-252
Publication date2019-01-25
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueNew Community (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0047-9586 • E-ISSN: 1469-9451
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/1369183x.2017.1404258
OpenAlexW2779955766
LanguageEN
Citations received38
References cited38

With child migration on the rise, there is a critical need to understand how migrant children express their agency. To date, popular narratives cast migrant children as either victims or criminals, an unhelpful binary that does little to further efforts to develop effective interventions to help migrant youth. Drawing from 32 in-depth interviews and participatory activities with Mexican and Central American children in Mexican youth immigration detention centres, this paper seeks to reconceptualise current understandings of migrant children’s agency. In this paper, we explore how youth express their motivations, assert their will, develop pragmatic dependencies, employ strategic parroting and guard information to achieve their goals. We also examine how state and non-state actors both support and suppress young people’s agency as they try to navigate their way to the U.S./Mexico border. In doing so, we argue for a more nuanced approach to child migrants’ agency. A non-binary approach recognises the development of agency as a process, embracing children and young people’s rights and vulnerabilities, while acknowledging their resiliencies, competencies, goals and strengths. We conclude by proposing a transdisciplinary research agenda to promote this non-binary approach

Demographic economics · Economics · Geography · Political science · Social science · Socioeconomics · Sociology · Children's Rights and Participation · Early Childhood Education and Development · Gender Studies · Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare

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