Until recently, there was an ‘absent presence’ of children within population studies  and within the field of migration research in particular.  There is growing evidence that the way in current policy and practice responds to children's experiences of migration reflects a particular conceptualization of ‘childhood’ and a series of assumptions about what it means to be a child. For example, simplistic, universalised notions about child development are liable to inform a prejudicial interpretation of the claim for asylum made by a young person who evinces a sense of membership and commitment to a particular ideology or political community. Current procedures seem to demand expression of incapacity, ignorance and victimhood on the part of the young. As well as the potentially damaging dimensions of past experience (and present experience of the asylum system), there is an almost systematic failure to address the tremendous strengths and competencies that young people have often developed in surviving political violence and the often hazardous journey to countries of asylum.

The tendency to overlook the experiences of children themselves reflects the fact that much of the work carried out in the field of child migration remains adult-centric and does not always include the voices of children themselves. 

Understanding and reframing children’s experiences of migration is an important and recurring theme across much of the Centre’s research and raises fundamental issues about whether, and if so how, we can hold on to the particular needs and vulnerabilities of children as children whilst simultaneously recognizing and reflecting (both theoretically and in policy and practice) the fact that ‘childhood’ is not a universal or homogenous experience and that children are actors as well as victims.

 

Projects

Disputes over age and the concept of childhood

Children and global change: experiencing migration, negotiating identities

Children, Migration and Identities (CMI) Network

Children seeking asylum in Wales

Children subject to immigration control: policy and practice guidelines

Detention of asylum seeking children

The situation of immigrant children in rich countries

Scottish Seperated Children Guardianship Pilot

Publications

Crawley, H. (2010) 'No one gives you a chance to say what you are thinking': finding space for children's agency in the asylum system', Area 42(2), 162-9

Crawley, H. (2010) 'Moving beyond Ethnicity: the socio-economic status and living conditions of immigrant children in the UK', Child Indicators Research (online version available)

Crawley, H. (2009) 'No one gives you a chance to say what you are thinking’: finding space for children’s agency in the UK asylum system', Area (early view available)

Crawley, H. (2009)  ‘The Situation of Children in Immigrant Families in the United Kingdom’, Innocenti Working Paper No. 2009-18, Florence: UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre,

Crawley, H. (2009) ‘Between a rock and a hard place – negotiating age and identity in the UK asylum system’, in N. Thomas (ed) Children, Politics and Communication: Participation at the Margins: Bristol: Policy Press

Crawley, H (2007) When is a Child not a Child: Asylum, Age Disputes and the Process of Age Assessment, London: ILPA 

Crawley, H and Lester, T (2005) 'No Place for a Child: Children in Immigration in the UK – Impacts, Alternatives and Safeguards' London: Save the Children UK (pdf available No place for a child )

Dunkerley, D, Maegusuku-Hewett, T, Smalley, N and Scourfield, J (2006) ‘Children seeking asylum in Wales’, Journal of Refugee Studies 19, (4), 488- 508

Hewett, T, Smalley, N, Dunkerley, D and Scourfield, J et al (2005) Uncertain Futures: Children Seeking Asylum in Wales , Cardiff: Save the Children UK