Children Crossing Borders: Latin American Migrant Children. Edited by Alejandra J. Josiowicz and Irasema Coronado

Abstract

Children Crossing Borders: Latin American Migrant Children is an important and welcomed contribution to the expanding studies of child migration. Through conscientious fieldwork and content analysis, the authors present ten chapters that center migration and borders and how these two concepts destabilize the lives of migrant and refugee children. The chapters discuss the social and cultural borders and disruptions experienced by migrant and refugee children as well as the lack of policies and solutions on the part of federal and state agencies and administrators. In their conclusions, the authors offer unique strategies of resilience and adaptability that work to mitigate the displacement and trauma experienced by the children. The book weaves together interdisciplinary, intersectional, and transnational approaches and provides an important contribution to Migration, Border and Borderland Studies. Throughout the book, borders are approached as dynamic concepts, as central sites of political, social, and cultural power struggles (p. 11). Part I focuses on the educational experiences of both migrant children who are U.S. citizens repatriated to their parent’s home countries and children from Latin America now living in the United States. For many of these children, educational experiences are defined by linguistic borders that lead to social, cultural, and educational disruptions and which force the children to reimagine their identities along transnational lines. Part II focuses on how literature, art, and culture can be used to present and explain borders as physical and symbolic spaces that destabilize the lives of migrant and refugee children. Until recently, these children were invisible or erased by racist, xenophobic, or imperialistic stereotypes. Through resilient forms of children’s and young adult literature, art projects that center walls as obstacles to mobility, and teaching approaches using testimonials, the authors address ways to combat racism and xenophobia while helping the children confront and challenge the very borders they are crossing. Part III deals with the best interests of migrant and refugee children, or lack thereof, and provides analysis of legislation, policies, and the global labor markets that never consider the best interest of the child. The chapters describe the structural traumas inflicted on the children when their best interests are excluded. Subsequently, the authors provide policy recommendations that aim to correct these omissions.