Young Migrants

Taking a multi-disciplinary perspective, and one grounded in human rights, Unaccompanied young migrants explores in-depth the journeys migrant youths take through the UK legal and care systems. Arriving with little agency, what becomes of these children as they grow and assume new roles and identities, only to risk losing legal protection as they reach eighteen? Through international studies and crucially the voices of the young migrants themselves, the book examines the narratives they present and the frameworks of culture and legislation into which they are placed. It challenges existing policy and questions, from a social justice perspective, what the treatment of this group tells us about our systems and the cultural presuppositions on which they depend.

Whereas most studies of migration focus on movement, this book examines the experience of staying put. It looks at young men living in a Soninke-speaking village in Gambia who, although eager to travel abroad for money and experience, settle as farmers, heads of families, businessmen, civic activists, or, alternatively, as unemployed, demoted youth. Those who stay do so not only because of financial and legal limitations, but also because of pressures to maintain family and social bases in the Gambia valley. ‘Stayers’ thus enable migrants to migrate, while ensuring the activities and values attached to rural life are passed on to the future generations.

In China, strong economic growth over the past four decades, accelerated urbanisation and multiple inequalities between urban and rural worlds have driven the escalation of internal and international migrations. The internal migration of workers represents a unique phenomenon since the reform and opening of China. Less-qualified young migrants are living in subaltern conditions and young migrant graduates have strongly internalised the idea of being the "heroes" of the new Chinese society in a context of emotional capitalism. But internal and international migrations intersect and intertwine, young internal and international migrants from China produce economic cosmopolitanisms in Chinese society and through top-down, bottom-up and intermediary globalisation. The young Chinese migrant incarnates the Global Individual, what we labeled here as the Compressed Individual.

Our focus on youth migration aims to unfold the theoretical and political constraints at play for these young migrants as they defy borders and national boundaries on their northbound journey. By placing the emphasis on young persons, this volume seeks to ponder on the challenges their movement is positing to governments and societies of the countries they are crossing by or settling in. Our goal is to go outside the perspectives constructed from a labor, adult-centered, breadwinner and family-head perspective. We recognize that the conditions that force them to flee uncertain economic conditions or to seek personal security may intersect, but by focusing on young migrants as actors in search of a decent and fair life, as well as on the hopes and resilience that every young person has, the point of view diverges. As they may be permanent or transit sojourners in local communities, we also propose to include the spaces, as the social and political communities reacts to this youth mobility. The chapters contained herein follow the migrant’s movement from South to North. Therefore, the authors focused on the analysis of several emerging issues in the migration dynamics in North America. Contents Introduction – Ana Vila Freyer and Liliana Meza González CHAPTER 1. GUATEMALA-MÉXICO: THE LAST BORDER BETWEEN THE EXCLUSION AND THE FULFILLMENT OF DREAMS OF YOUNG PEOPLE FROM THE NORTHERN COUNTRIES OF CENTRAL AMERICA – Sandra Herrera-Ruiz and Lesbia Ortiz Martínez CHAPTER 2. SUSPENDED LIVES OF CENTRAL AMERICAN YOUTH IN MEXICO: BETWEEN INCLUSION AND SURVIVAL – Martha Luz Rojas Wiesner and Susann Hjorth Boisen CHAPTER 3. (DIS) CONTINUITIES IN CENTRAL AMERICA’S MIGRATORY MOBILITY. THE POST-MITCH GENERATION – Javier Urbano Reyes CHAPTER 4. IRREGULAR MIGRATION AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING FOR THE PURPOSE OF SEXUAL EXPLOITATION: AN ANALYSIS OF PUBLIC POLICY INSTRUMENTS FOR COMBATING IT IN CHIAPAS, MEXICO – Jesús Rubio Campos and Carolina Guadiana Sánchez CHAPTER 5. WOULD YOU PLEASE TELL ME, WHICH WAY I OUGHT TO GO? CENTRAL AMERICANS CROSSING THROUGH OR SETTLING IN GUANAJUATO – Ana Vila Freyer and Eloy Estrada Lozano CHAPTER 6. THE ACCESS TO PUBLIC MEDICAL SERVICES AND TO FORMAL JOBS FOR YOUNG CENTRAL AMERICAN MIGRANTS IN MEXICO, BEFORE AND AFTER THE 2011 MIGRATION LAW – Liliana Meza González and Ken Nishikata CHAPTER 7. THE DISPLACEMENT AND ECONOMIC INSERTION OF REFUGEES FROM CENTRAL AMERICA IN MEXICO – Rodolfo Cruz Piñeiro and Rafael Alonso Hernández López CHAPTER 8. THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION’S CENTRAL AMERICAN MINORS (CAM) PROGRAM (2015-2017): A SAFE AND LEGAL PATH TO THE UNITED STATES? – Chiara Galli CHAPTER 9. THE EDUCATIONAL AND CAREER GOALS OF THE CHILDREN OF UNDOCUMENTED PARENTS IN THE UNITED STATES: A MIXED-METHOD STUDY OF DACA ELIGIBLE STUDENTS AT A CALIFORNIA PUBLIC UNIVERSITY – Nicole Dubus CHAPTER 10. YOUNG INDIGENOUS MIGRANTS FROM SOUTHERN MEXICO IN THE U.S. – Tania Cruz-Salazar CHAPTER 11. INTEGRATION INTO THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM AND THE JOB MARKET AMONG YOUNG MIGRANTS IN MEXICO – Ana Escoto and Claudia Masferrer

The paper uses individual level census and household survey data to present a rich profile of the young developing migrants around the world. Youth are found to comprise a large share of all migrants, particularly in migration to other developing countries, with the probability of migration peaking in the late teens or early twenties. The paper examines in detail the age and gender composition of migrants, whether young migrants move alone or with a parent or spouse, their participation in schooling and work in the destination country, the types of jobs they do, and the age of return migration. The results suggest a high degree of commonality in the youth migrant experience across a number of destination countries. In particular, developing country youth tend to work in similar occupations all around the world, and are more concentrated in these occupations than older migrants or native youth. Nevertheless, there is also considerable heterogeneity among youth migrants: 29 percent of 18 to 24 year olds are attending school in their destination country, but another 29 percent are not working or in school. This illustrates both the potential of migration for building human capital, and the fear that lack of integration prevents it from being used.

This collection is the first to examine the life experiences of young adult immigrants in Europe, as transmitted by the young adults themselves, and together with the analytical framework, seeks to uncover mechanisms at work in these individuals' lives.

Our focus on youth migration aims to unfold the theoretical and political constraints at play for these young migrants as they defy borders and national boundaries on their northbound journey. By placing the emphasis on young persons, this volume seeks to ponder on the challenges their movement is positing to governments and societies of the countries they are crossing by or settling in. Our goal is to go outside the perspectives constructed from a labor, adult-centered, breadwinner and family-head perspective. We recognize that the conditions that force them to flee uncertain economic conditions or to seek personal security may intersect, but by focusing on young migrants as actors in search of a decent and fair life, as well as on the hopes and resilience that every young person has, the point of view diverges. As they may be permanent or transit sojourners in local communities, we also propose to include the spaces, as the social and political communities reacts to this youth mobility. The chapters contained herein follow the migrant's movement from South to North. Therefore, the authors focused on the analysis of several emerging issues in the migration dynamics in North America. Contents Introduction - Ana Vila Freyer and Liliana Meza González CHAPTER 1. GUATEMALA-MÉXICO: THE LAST BORDER BETWEEN THE EXCLUSION AND THE FULFILLMENT OF DREAMS OF YOUNG PEOPLE FROM THE NORTHERN COUNTRIES OF CENTRAL AMERICA - Sandra Herrera-Ruiz and Lesbia Ortiz Martínez CHAPTER 2. SUSPENDED LIVES OF CENTRAL AMERICAN YOUTH IN MEXICO: BETWEEN INCLUSION AND SURVIVAL - Martha Luz Rojas Wiesner and Susann Hjorth Boisen CHAPTER 3. (DIS) CONTINUITIES IN CENTRAL AMERICA'S MIGRATORY MOBILITY. THE POST-MITCH GENERATION - Javier Urbano Reyes CHAPTER 4. IRREGULAR MIGRATION AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING FOR THE PURPOSE OF SEXUAL EXPLOITATION: AN ANALYSIS OF PUBLIC POLICY INSTRUMENTS FOR COMBATING IT IN CHIAPAS, MEXICO - Jesús Rubio Campos and Carolina Guadiana Sánchez CHAPTER 5. WOULD YOU PLEASE TELL ME, WHICH WAY I OUGHT TO GO? CENTRAL AMERICANS CROSSING THROUGH OR SETTLING IN GUANAJUATO - Ana Vila Freyer and Eloy Estrada Lozano CHAPTER 6. THE ACCESS TO PUBLIC MEDICAL SERVICES AND TO FORMAL JOBS FOR YOUNG CENTRAL AMERICAN MIGRANTS IN MEXICO, BEFORE AND AFTER THE 2011 MIGRATION LAW - Liliana Meza González and Ken Nishikata CHAPTER 7. THE DISPLACEMENT AND ECONOMIC INSERTION OF REFUGEES FROM CENTRAL AMERICA IN MEXICO - Rodolfo Cruz Piñeiro and Rafael Alonso Hernández López CHAPTER 8. THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION'S CENTRAL AMERICAN MINORS (CAM) PROGRAM (2015-2017): A SAFE AND LEGAL PATH TO THE UNITED STATES? - Chiara Galli CHAPTER 9. THE EDUCATIONAL AND CAREER GOALS OF THE CHILDREN OF UNDOCUMENTED PARENTS IN THE UNITED STATES: A MIXED-METHOD STUDY OF DACA ELIGIBLE STUDENTS AT A CALIFORNIA PUBLIC UNIVERSITY - Nicole Dubus CHAPTER 10. YOUNG INDIGENOUS MIGRANTS FROM SOUTHERN MEXICO IN THE U.S. - Tania Cruz-Salazar CHAPTER 11. INTEGRATION INTO THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM AND THE JOB MARKET AMONG YOUNG MIGRANTS IN MEXICO - Ana Escoto and Claudia Masferrer