Migrant Youth and the Sociolegal Construction of Child and Adult Categories

Globally, a significant number of migrants are between the ages of 15 and 24. Although many migrants in this age group are in the process of transitioning from childhood to adulthood, the legal frameworks they encounter draw stark distinctions between migrant children and adults. In this project, the PI uses participant observation and ethnographic interviews to investigate the effects of child/adult dichotomies in legal frameworks in order to uncover the tensions and contradictions that may emerge as such frameworks intersect with social processes. Several research questions are investigated including what the roles social and legal understandings of childhood and adulthood play in the lives of young migrants as they arrive and settle into local communities, and how age-based processes and narratives differ depending on migrants’ demographic characteristics and experiences of family separation. Drawing from interdisciplinary theories about power, childhood, and agency, this project also seeks to contribute new perspectives to scholarship on youth migration by exploring how youth experience, negotiate, and co-construct the generational categories embedded in the policies and legal systems that shape their lives. Methods include participant observation and conversational interviews with migrant youth, semi-structured interviews with state workers and advocates involved with migrant youth and focus groups. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.