Transnational Child Migration: Impact on American Senegalese Youth and Their Cultural Integration in the United States

• In Event: Cyclical Migration and Education: Transborder Students and Families Between Korea, Mexico, Senegal, and the United States

Abstract

Objectives: This presentation will draw from a multi-case study by looking at one understudied category of transnational migrant children. Transnational migration has been broadly defined as “the process by which immigrants forge and sustain simultaneous multi-stranded social relations that link together their societies of origin and settlement” (Schiller, Basch & Blanc, 1995, p.48). In this study, a transnational child migrant is born in the parents’ country of immigration (in this case the US), who is involuntarily sent to the parent’s country of origin for a longer stay at least 10 years and, later returns to live with their parents again.

Theoretical Framework: Attachment and Family Instability Theory is a central component of attachment theory. It is the notion that caregivers must be present and accessible in order for their children to become attached to them (Howard, Marti , Berlin & Brooks-Gunn, 2011). Bowlbywas concerned with the well-being of children who experienced separation from their mothers. Moreover, his work demonstrated that separations as brief as one week in duration could negatively impact the quality of the relationship between mother and child ( 1969/1982). Bowlby referred to the lack of accessibility to a parent as either separation or loss, depending on whether it was temporary or permanent in nature (1973).

Methods: A qualitative multi-case study approach was used to critically examine the challenges American-Senegalese youth face upon returning to their birth country and reuniting with their parent(s). Data is drawn with the intent to explore the manner in which intersectionality shapes the identity of the returning American-Senegalese youth and how it affects the ways they (re)construct and renegotiate their racial and ethnic identities.

Data sources: This research was conducted as an explanatory qualitative investigation of the American-Senegalese students returning to the United States. The study was conducted during the 2018-2019 academic year, and includes field notes, semi-structured interviews, and radio interview transcripts.

Results: The findings display the costs, benefits, and consequences of transnational parenting and the fact that these American-Senegalese children are sent to Senegal in an attempt to de-Americanize them while fostering Senegalese values in them with the hope of keeping them out of trouble. Furthermore, the findings show that for the American-Senegalese children, the (unintended) consequences of being raised in multiple households and different countries come with long lasting struggles such as: identity (re) construction and (re) negotiation formation challenges; an endless search of a sense of self and acceptance in the US; and frustrations navigating the US school system.

Scholarly Significance: This research seeks to make visible a group that is often ignored and/or overlooked in school discourse, policies, and education research. More, this research contributes to the literature on immigrant students from African descent, transnational mothering, and integration experiences of transnationalized children to illuminate how the increase of the immigrant population in the US complicates dominant ideologies of nationalism and mainstream perceptions of normal family structures.

Author

• Aminata Diop, The City College of New York, CUNY