Transnational Childhood. Part II: The Place and Role of Children in Migration from Central Asia to Russia

Abstract

The article focuses on the place and role of migrant children in labor migration from Central Asia to Russia. The concept of “children of migrants” covers not only those who came with their parents but also children left behind. We propose to consider the issue from the theoretical and methodological perspective of “transnational childhood”. According to this perspective, children who grow up and become adult in the migration social space are active participants of the migration process with their own ideas and plans. The text is based on the analysis of data from observations and at least 100 interviews conducted both with migrants and their family members at sending countries. All in all, thirty cases or families with children of different ages are investigated.

In the article we investigate socio-economic and marital contexts in sending countries; family communication concerning the children both in sending and receiving countries; financial and cultural aspects of this communication; the role of children in the way things move between countries as well as in the change of plans of migrating parents. The article shows how children “here” and “there” and their parents are included in multiple social and economic networks across national borders which creates a variety of transnational practices and communications concerning the relationship between parents and children, parents and others family members or guardians. Thus, children of migrants are not just participants in migration. Problematizing their own and parental position in various spheres of life as intermediate, they create new or strengthen existing transnational social spaces.

The text is a continuation of the article, the first part of which is focused on an overview of the major theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of children of migrants. The first part was published in No. 4 (2021).