Between agency and repression: Moroccan children on the edge

Vacchiano, Francesco; Jiménez, Mercedes Torres

doi:10.1080/14733285.2012.726074

Cited by 42 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…States adopt rather ambiguous and contradictory policy strategies towards independent child migrants (Vacchiano & Jiménez, 2014). Jacqueline Bhabha (2008, pp.…”

Section: Ambiguous State Practicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Following these approaches and others focusing on the need for more child-centered research (O' Connell Davidson & Farrow, 2007), this article offers an ethnographically informed account of how state migration and deportation regimes structure and constrain minors' mobility. Based on empirical data collected in 2009 during three months of ethnographic fieldwork at a Guatemalan state institution 4 for deported migrant minors, I draw attention to how (Guatemalan and Mexican) state intervention, envisioned as supporting, protecting, and dignifying independent child migrants' deportation, is perceived by some minors as what I, following Vacchiano and Jiménez (2014), suggest to be practices of indirect sanctioning and blaming of their agency. I furthermore describe how globalized normative "western" notions of youth lead to ambiguous state approaches towards young migrants, rendering them particularly vulnerable yet simultaneously criminalizing and sanctioning them (see Vacchiano & Jiménez, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…3 Much scholarly work on independent child migrants engages in the analysis of the actors' (inter)national human rights as well as in the documentation of the numerous infringements of these rights through state and non-state actors (see Vacchiano & Jiménez, 2014; on Central American/Guatemalan independent child migrants' rights violations see Bhabha, 2008Bhabha, , 2014Escobar Sarti, 2008;Girón Solórzano, 2014 Influenced by a paradigm shift in childhood studies repositioning children and youth as "active agents in the construction of their own lives," independent child migration too is frequently analyzed in terms of agency and vulnerability (Bordonaro, 2014, p. 413;Eßer, 2014;Ensor & Goździak, 2010;Mizen & Ofosu-Kusi, 2013;Oswell, 2013;O'Higgins, 2012;Vacchiano & Jiménez, 2014). Against this background, a vast body of interdisciplinary literature has not only provided "evidence" of young migrants' agency but also of how this agency is constrained by state child protection policies and through state-driven discourses on child migrants' vulnerability (see Bhabha, 2008Bhabha, , 2014Ensor & Goździak, 2010;O' Connell Davidson & Farrow, 2007;Orgocka, 2012;Uehling, 2008;Vacchiano & Jiménez, 2014). Nevertheless, Aida Orgocka (2012, p. 8) indicates that more qualitative research is needed "into how policy practices in countries in the Global South impact the agentic actions" of independent child migrants.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Dietrich

2015

Transnational Social Review

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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.

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“…States adopt rather ambiguous and contradictory policy strategies towards independent child migrants (Vacchiano & Jiménez, 2014). Jacqueline Bhabha (2008, pp.…”

Section: Ambiguous State Practicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

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

Dietrich

2015

Transnational Social Review

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“…De forma que la creciente heterogeneidad de orígenes, objetivos y estrategias circulatorias tensionan la regulación institucional de este flujo migratorio en Méji-co, Estados Unidos, Sudáfrica o Europa, entre otros escenarios (Bhabha, 2011). Por un lado, porque los sistemas de protección de la infancia tienen ámbito local, mientras estos jóvenes forman parte de un campo social transnacional, en el que es común que las familias, nucleares o extensas, se sitúen en varios Estados al mismo tiempo (Ostergaard-Nielsen, 2003;Vacchiano y Jiménez, 2012).…”

Section: Un Movimiento Migratorio Globalunclassified

Retos de la acogida residencial a menores que migran solos: hacia un Trabajo Social transnacional

Monterde

2018

Cuad. Trab. Soc.

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Resumen. Desde inicios del siglo, los menores de edad que migran autónoma e irregularmente hacia Europa han sido acogidos por los recursos residenciales de los servicios de protección de la infancia, desbordando en algunos momentos, las plazas de acogida existentes, por lo que la regulación de esta migración se ha podido transformar, implícitamente, en una nueva función del Trabajo Social. La investigación sobre las prácticas de acogida en varios estados europeos y en una Comunidad Autónoma española aporta un análisis de las tensiones entre el control migratorio y la protección de los menores migrantes; así como sobre las posibilidades de intervención social en el nuevo marco transnacional. A través de las entrevistas a técnicos y menores, el tratamiento estadístico de expedientes de tutela y la observación en centros formativos y de acogida, se señalan las prácticas de filtrado en la asignación de recursos residenciales a los menores que migran solos, como una estrategia ajena a las soluciones duraderas y al interés superior de los menores. Desde la perspectiva de esta experiencia investigadora internacional, concluimos que las fases del ciclo migratorio de menores no acompañados a Europa han devenido un fenómeno estable, en el que las administraciones locales responsables de la protección y las redes transnacionales de los menores y sus familias se han adaptado mutuamente. Por lo que las experiencias sureuropeas de Trabajo Social con los países de origen y de diversificación de modelos de acogida en destino pueden ser transferidas a otros estados europeos que comienzan a recibir este flujo migratorio actualmente. Palabras clave: Protección de la infancia; migración; menores no acompañados; acogimiento residencial; interés superior del menor.[en] Challenges of residential care for unaccompanied migrant minors: toward transnational social work Abstract. From the turn of the century, minors who have autonomously and irregularly migrated to Europe have been cared for with residential resources from child protection services, their numbers at times exceeding the limited number of available care places. Regulating this migration has hence implicitly become a new function of social work. Research into residential care practices in various European States and in a Spanish Autonomous Community has contributed an analysis of the tensions between migratory control and the protection of minor migrants, and of the opportunities for social intervention within the new transnational framework. This study uses interviews with experts and minors, statistical analysis of care records and observation in education and residential care centres to identify filtering practices in the allocation of residential resources to unaccompanied migrant minors as a strategy that fails to offer long-term solutions or to protect the best interest of the minors. From the perspective of this international research experience, we conclude that the phases of the migratory cycle for unaccompanied minors coming to Europe have become a stable phenomeno...

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“…Forced migration is another instance, being transatlantic slave-trade an extreme ase in which more than 2.5 million children may have been involved (Vasconcellos, 2008). Despite these major historical antecedents, the element of newness is represented today by the legal and regulatory dimensions which transform children into "minors", and -more specifically, when mobility takes on transnational dimensions -in "migrant" or "unaccompanied minors" (Petti, 2004;Vacchiano and Jiménez, 2012).…”

Section: Childhood As a Productive Categorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Para além das fronteiras e dos limites: adolescentes migrantes marroquinos entre desejo, vulnerabilidade e risco

Vacchiano

2014

Saude soc.

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This contribution analyzes and discusses the case of the migration of "unaccompanied" children and adolescents between Morocco and Europe. This analysis was originally presented as a contribution to the Project "Anthropology of Interfaces" (FCT/ CAPES). The article examines the ways in which young migrants give meaning to the world and to the experience of mobility, in an attempt to explore the construction of the youth's experience between contemporary global and (g)local worlds of experience and meaning. The theoretical perspective inspiring the study lies at the intersection of anthropology, psychology and migration studies and is based on the concept of subjectivity, understood as a form of orientation to the world and embodiment of historically and politically defined norms, values and meaning. This orientation influences the imagination and defines specific forms of thinking, acting, speaking, suffering and giving meaning to existence. The article shows that the subjective construction of postcolonial youth and their families is moulded upon a globally-fashioned "desire for modernity and participation", which clashes with the normative process imposed by the new "discipline of the borders" in Europe, manifested through the bureaucratic and administrative procedures of the so-called "reception". The combination of these two dynamics concurs in producing the experience of marginality and the following risk also in terms of "disposition to be sanctioned". Conclusions delve into the paradox of a process in which young migrants are pushed back to the prescribed marginal place in the world which the infringement of the border had tried to subvert.

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Between agency and repression: Moroccan children on the edge

Cited by 42 publications

References 11 publications

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

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

Retos de la acogida residencial a menores que migran solos: hacia un Trabajo Social transnacional

Para além das fronteiras e dos limites: adolescentes migrantes marroquinos entre desejo, vulnerabilidade e risco

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