Discordant temporalities of migration and childhood★

Abstract

Childhood, though it is understood cross-culturally in very different ways, always has a distinctive temporal framework, since children's growth and development cannot be undone. Yet, in many contexts, the times of childhood have become discordant with the rhythms, timescales, and temporal controls of migration. Focusing on the children of Indonesian and Filipino migrants in Sabah, Malaysia, this article explores the contemporary clash between the temporalities of migration and childhood. Children face separations and ruptures in shared time due to Malaysia's migration regime, and experience the temporariness of migrant life differently to their parents. Educational exclusion leads to temporal discontinuities between Malaysian-citizen and migrant childhoods, and racialized understandings of national time emphasize the negative potentiality of migrants’ children. Overall, the article argues for the importance of considering the interaction between the temporal conflicts of capitalism and forms of natural time such as childhood.