Transnational Processes of Identification and Belonging Among Children and Young People of Migrant Descent

Abstract

In order to recognize young people as independent social agents, a great deal of research has focused on developing understandings of their senses of identity and belonging outside of the realm of the family. As relevant and necessary as these contributions are, they do not allow for an exploration of the role that relationships within the family or across generations may play in young people’s sense of self. Taking into account the relational context of the family is necessary to develop better understandings of the experiences and affiliations of children of migrant descent who may live embedded in transnational families and their extended social networks. The chapter starts by exploring the research which has foregrounded the roles of children and young people in processes of transmigration and incorporation into receiving societies, illuminating the ways in which they actively negotiate experiences of inclusion and exclusion. It then considers the contributions made by research on transnational families and emotional and symbolic transnationalism that aid our understanding of the cross-border connections of later generation young people. These contributions highlight the relevant roles that transnational family networks and their emotional circuits play in recreating attachments which may figure saliently in the senses of self of young children of migrants. Paying attention to the roles that emotional and symbolic transnational attachments play in the senses of identity and belonging of children of migrant descent can enrich conceptualizations of transnationalism and contribute to understandings of children’s emotional and imaginative agency.