Independent Child Migration: Introducing Children’s Perspectives

Summary

Much of the recent research on child migration has focused on children who face particularly dire situations, including those who are coerced into migration and face highly exploitative conditions of labour at their destinations. However, while these adverse situations undoubtedly exist, the intensifying focus on trafficked children has increasingly obscured other forms of child migration which may bring some benefits to the children involved.

Indeed, the Migration DRC’s research on child migrants in South Asia and West Africa has shown that many of these children see migration as a way to access significantly better opportunities. A number of important aspects of children’s migration have proven to be largely case-specific, including factors which ‘trigger’ child migration; the extent to which children play an active role in taking decisions to migrate; and whether children’s migration is ultimately successful in improving their socio-economic status.