The Oxford Handbook of Child-Centered Approaches to Migrant Children

by Zorana Medaric, Barbara Gornik (Editor), Mateja Sedmak

Overview

The Oxford Handbook of Child-Centered Approaches to Migrant Children aims to bring child-centered approaches as applied to researching child migration to the forefront of academic and policy debates on this topic. The chapters included in this volume cover the key debates in the field and provide important insights about recent developments in areas that inform use of the child-centered approach. The concept of the child-centered approach is widely recognized in the social sciences and humanities, including sociology, anthropology, education, psychology, social policy, and law. This approach, whether applied in research, policymaking, or practice, is based on children's agency and participation and focuses specifically on their experiences, perspectives, and voices. To this end, the child-centered approach privileges children when designing research questions, providing descriptions, making interpretations, and carrying out analyses. By pairing the child-centered approach with concepts such as agency, voice, well-being, participation, and intergenerational justice that are used in contexts relevant to migrant children, this Handbook presents the major theoretical premises, epistemological approaches, and models used in different social settings and spheres, including research, education, and the political realm. It also describes the experiences of researchers in applying child-centered methods and approaches to their work and highlights the importance of ethical considerations and continuous reflexivity in relation to child-centered knowledge production. The Handbook additionally highlights the complexity and diversity of transnational childhoods from around the globe, as well as presenting the experiences of different migrant groups, including undocumented and irregular migrants, asylum seekers, economic migrants, and left-behind children. Lastly, it examines the fundamental legal principles and aspects of participation in relation to specific procedures, policy areas, and legal categories relevant to migrant children.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780197654774
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	06/09/2025
Series:	Oxford Handbooks
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	690
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Barbara Gornik is a Senior Research Associate at the Science and Research Centre Koper, Slovenia. Her main research interests are anthropology, human and children's rights, nationalism, and child migration. Until June 2022 she worked as Academic Co-coordinator of the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Action "Migrant Children and Communities in a Transforming Europe" (MiCREATE). In 2021, she became a member of the Scientific Research Council for Humanities, a permanent expert body of the Slovenian Research Agency. She is a member of the editorial board of Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the LSE's Association for the Study of Ethnicity and Nationalism. Zorana Medaric is a sociologist and a research associate at the Science and Research Centre Koper, Slovenia. Her research interests include migration, childhood studies, qualitative research and child-centred approaches, with a particular focus on the experiences of children in migration contexts. From 2009 to 2021 she was a researcher and lecturer at the Faculty of Tourism Studies at the University of Primorska. As a researcher, she has been involved in various national and international projects, including Growing Up in Digital Europe (GUIDE), Europe's first longitudinal comparative birth cohort study of children's and young people's wellbeing. Mateja Sedmak is Principal Research Associate and the Head of the Institute for Social Sciences at the Science and Research Centre Koper, Slovenia. Her research interests include ethnic and intercultural studies, migration and integration, sociology of everyday life and sociology of family. She is Vice President of the Slovenian Sociological Association and the head of the Section for Intercultural Studies. She has led many international projects, including the "Migrant Children and Communities in a Transforming Europe" (MiCREATE) RIA Horizon 2020 project. She is also National Coordinator of "Growing Up in Digital Europe" (GUIDE) research infrastructure, Europe's first longitudinal cross-national birth cohort study.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments About the Editors Contributors Preface 1. Introduction: The Child-Centered Approaches to Migrant Children Barbara Gornik, Zorana Medaric, and Mateja Sedmak Part I: Concepts and Models 2. Characteristics and Challenges of Child-Centered Approach with Migrant Children Zorana Medaric 3. The Social Conditions of (Migrant) Children's Agency in Global Society Claudio Baraldi 4. The Five-Dimensions Model of Migrant Children's Subjective Well-Being Sabine Andresen and Barbara Gornik 5. Migrant Children as Agents in the Adult-Centered Political Space Barbara Gornik 6. Against Adultism in Research with and about Migrant Children: Outlines of a Child-Centered Approach Urszula Markowska-Manista and Manfred Liebel 7. Transforming Participation of Children of Migrant Origin in Research Projects Shoba Arun and Jesicca Ozan 8. Fostering Child Centered Educational Settings for Students of Immigrant Origin Carola Suarez-Orozco 9. An Intergenerational Justice Approach to the Sustainable Support of Migrant Children Judi Mesman Part II: Methods and Approaches 10. Ethical Challenges in Researching Migrant Children Zorana Medaric 11. Migrant Children as Co-Constructors and Advisors in Research Deirdre Horgan, Shirley Martin, Jacqui O'Riordan, Reana Maier, and the IMMERSE Children and Young People's Advisory Group 12. Positional Multi-Method Approach to Elicit Migrant Children's Subjectivities Chiara Massaroni 13. Participatory Visual Methods in Child-Centered Migration Research Søren Sindberg Jensen and Gro Hellesdatter Jacobsen 14. Migrant Children's Photography as Transformative Practice in Early Childhood Education Annika Åkerblom 15. Storyboard Peers: A Child-Centered, Peer-Mediated, Visual and Narrative Approach to Research and Practice with Forced Migrant Youth Jessica Ball 16. Philosophy with Children (PwC) as a Pedagogical Approach and Research Method Søren Sindberg Jensen 17. Autobiographical Life Stories of Migrant Children through a Child-Centered Lens Mateja Sedmak 18. Child-Centered Approaches in Digital Research with Migrant Children Koen Leurs 19. A Child-Centered Approach to Longitudinal Data Collection Haridhan Goswami and Gary Pollack Part III: Voices and Perspectives 20. Migrant Children's Experiences and the State-Centered Regimes in Colombia Nohora Constanza Niño Vega 21. Legal Consciousness and Agency of Unaccompanied Migrant Children on the Move Bastien Roland and Annalisa Lendaro 22. Child Guides and Migration in the U.S.-Mexico Border Region Kate Swanson, Rebecca Maria Torres, and Sarah Blue 23. Young Children's Learning Environments in East African Refugee Camps Nerea Amorós Elorduy 24. Ghanaian Transnational Households and the Children "Left Behind" Michael Boampong and Jahan Foster Zabit 25. Girls' Irregular Migration, Return and Reintegration in Somaliland Fathima Azmiya Badurdeen 26. Intersectional Perspective on Migrant Children's Integration in Austrian Schools Stella Louise Wolter, Rosa Tatzber, and Birgit Sauer 27. A Case Study Exploring the Integration Experiences of Child Migrants in Malaysia Thavamalar Thuraisingam, Jason James Turner, and Kelly Tee Pei Leng 28. Romani Refugee Youth Perspectives on School and Work in Canada Sara Swerdlyik Part IV: Policy and Legal Issues 29. Migrant Children's Participation in Political and Democratic Life Barbara Janta and Michaela Bruckmayer 30. A Child-Centered Approach to Representing Children in Immigration Legal Systems Laila L. Hlass and Lindsay M. Harris 31. A Child-Centered Approach to Asylum Policy and Practice Nancy Kelly and John Willshire Carrera 32. Benefit of the Doubt and Presumption of Minority in Age Assessment John Dorber and Mark Klaassen 33. A Child-Centered Perspective and EU Integration Policies Veronika Bajt and Vlasta Jalusic 34. Promoting Migrant Children's Rights by Developing Child-Centered Information Helen Stalford and Tilly Clough