The realities of marginalization: The life paths of children and youth living on the streets of Rio de Janeiro

Summary

The visual presence of young people hustling and living on the streets of Rio
de Janeiro conceals complicated life histories. This paper based on extensive
interviews with over 60 children shows how going to and being on the street
is a process marked by many ruptures and losses, constant instability, lack of
care from family and local social services, indifference and constant danger.
The authors conclude by arguing the importance of providing practical
support to the communities of origin and the families of these youngsters as
well as the need for additional action by state and other social actors to
reduce the incidence of marginalization.

This paper is based on the life stories told by children and adolescents found on the
streets of Rio de Janeiro. Their trajectories are connected to the current historical moment of globalisation, which as the geographer Milton Santos puts it, is: “a moment of rapid
transformations, of transitions and of a spatial-political reorganization of the world”. These are the so called meninos e meninas de rua, street kids, niños de la calle, enfants de la rue… – common terms for a phenomenon that has become painfully visible in Latin America since the 1980s. The trajectories that we present and discuss here represent the lives of millions of children and adolescents in the world. Are their life trajectories inevitable? This question will guide our analysis.