Childhood and Migration in Europe explores the under-researched and
often misunderstood worlds of migrant children and young people,
drawing on extensive empirical research with children and young people
from diverse migrant backgrounds living in a rapidly changing European
society. Through in-depth exploration and analysis of the experiences
of children who moved to Ireland in the first decade of the 21st
century, it addresses the tendency of migration research and policy to
overlook the presence of children in migratory flows.
Challenging dominant adult-centric perspectives on contemporary
global migration flows and presenting understandings of the lives of
migrant children and young people from their own experiences, this book
presents a detailed exploration of children's lives in four different
migrant populations in Ireland. With a unique comparative perspective,
Childhood and Migration in Europe advances upon current
conceptualisations of migration and integration by interrogating
accepted views of migrant children and focusing on children's own
voices and experiences. It challenges the prevailing assimilationist
discourses underlying much existing research and policy, which often
construct migrant children as deficient in different ways and in need
of 'being integrated'.