Migrant Children and Youth: Wellbeing and Integration Around the World

This volume contains an Open Access Chapter.

Migration represents a challenge and opportunity. Among the world’s migrants are nearly 34 million refugees and asylum seekers; of these, half are estimated to be children. As the world struggles to cope with global economic imbalances, diverging demographic trends, and climate change, international and internal migration are increasingly salient for the wellbeing, social integration, and civil and human rights of children and youth. Migrant Children and Youth includes research contributions that illuminate and engage with children and youth as migrants.

Featuring chapters from a global and diverse collection of authors, the chapters provide empirical insights from a global perspective of children and youth who are affected by migration processes. Examining root causes and agency, the authors ask, what extent do children and youth exercise volition in the decision to migrate either internally or internationally? From their vantage points to what extent are children and youth on the move, uprooted, and vulnerable? Upon resettlement, what are the social integration challenges and opportunities for children or youth, and to what extent are children and youth migrants constrained in this new context? What do children and youth experience because of migration, and what does this mean for their wellbeing, social integration, and rights?

Loretta E. Bass is Professor of Sociology at the University of Oklahoma, USA, and outgoing series editor of Sociological Studies of Children & Youth. She has served in leadership positions in the American Sociological Association’s (ASA) Children and Youth Section, first as Newsletter Editor (1999-2003) and later as Chair of the Section (2010-12).