Abstract

People migrate globally in search of better lives, and migration often produces political, sociocultural, and economic turbulence. This qualitative study explored the lived experiences of two Caribbean barrel children, whose mothers sought employment in Canada and abandoned or left their children in the care of family members. Data consisted of two daughters’ stories daughters, which illustrate the complexities of the barrel-children phenomena. A narrative approach was used to collect the data, and theoretical frameworks guiding the study included Bowlby’s attachment theory, Black feminism, and the intersectionality of race, class, and gender. Data analysis involved structural and narrative analysis. The study found that, in contrast to the literature, the two participants had positive experiences as barrel children and in reuniting with their parents in Toronto. The study highlights the importance of grandmothers in caring for children left behind and even after reunification with parents in Canada. The Black community, along with Black teachers, also play key roles in helping barrel children integrate into Canadian society and face challenges such as racism. Keywords: Barrel children, Canada, Caribbean immigrants, Children left behind, Parental separation.

Highlights

  • Global migration is defined for the most part as a situation where people move from a developing to developed countries to look for employment (Conway, 1991)

  • This major research paper explores the effect of migration on female children left behind in Jamaica and their social integration after reunification with their parents, mothers, in Toronto, Canada

  • To obtain narratives of lived experiences, interviews were conducted with participants who were left behind, who were barrel-children

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Summary

Introduction

Global migration is defined for the most part as a situation where people move from a developing to developed countries to look for employment (Conway, 1991). This migration has resulted in interesting shifts in human existence that bring some degree of turbulence and change to the political, socio-cultural, and economic landscapes. Global migration often has a number of unforeseen consequences, including but not limited to breakdown in the family structure through parent-child separation (Conway, 1991). While the parents' primary goal is to secure a better financial future for their families, their children are often left in the care of aunts, uncles, grandparents, community members, or friends. While trying to settle in the new countries, send back clothes and food to help with their children’s material well-being, in a barrel

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