Migrant Youth and the Sociolegal Construction of Child and Adult Categories

在全球范围内，相当数量的移民年龄在15岁到24岁之间。尽管这一年龄段的许多移民正处于从童年向成年的过渡过程中，但他们遇到的法律框架在移民儿童和成年人之间划出了鲜明的区别。在这个项目中，国际和平协会使用参与者观察和人种学访谈来调查法律框架中儿童/成人二分法的影响，以揭示这种框架与社会进程相交时可能出现的紧张和矛盾。本研究探讨了几个研究问题，包括年轻移民抵达并融入当地社区后，对童年和成年的社会和法律理解在他们的生活中扮演了什么角色，以及基于年龄的过程和叙事如何因移民的人口特征和家庭分离的经历而有所不同。该项目还试图从关于权力、童年和中介的跨学科理论中汲取灵感，通过探索青年如何经历、谈判和共同构建嵌入在塑造他们生活的政策和法律制度中的代际类别，为青年移民学术贡献新的视角。方法包括对移民青年的参与者观察和对话采访，对涉及移民青年和焦点群体的国家工作人员和倡导者的半结构化采访。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Globally, a significant number of migrants are between the ages of 15 and 24. Although many migrants in this age group are in the process of transitioning from childhood to adulthood, the legal frameworks they encounter draw stark distinctions between migrant children and adults. In this project, the PI uses participant observation and ethnographic interviews to investigate the effects of child/adult dichotomies in legal frameworks in order to uncover the tensions and contradictions that may emerge as such frameworks intersect with social processes. Several research questions are investigated including what the roles social and legal understandings of childhood and adulthood play in the lives of young migrants as they arrive and settle into local communities, and how age-based processes and narratives differ depending on migrants’ demographic characteristics and experiences of family separation.Drawing from interdisciplinary theories about power, childhood, and agency, this project also seeks to contribute new perspectives to scholarship on youth migration by exploring how youth experience, negotiate, and co-construct the generational categories embedded in the policies and legal systems that shape their lives. Methods include participant observation and conversational interviews with migrant youth, semi-structured interviews with state workers and advocates involved with migrant youth and focus groups.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.