Asylees, Refugees, or Immigrants? The Power of a Single Word in the Unaccompanied Child Migrant Crisis

• In Event: Integration and the State in the Americas

Abstract

In the discourse over what to do about the current crisis of unaccompanied children from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras presenting themselves at the U.S. border, the debate ranges over how they should be categorized: persons seeking refuge from war or from persecution on the basis of one or more categories specified in international law or undocumented immigrants like so many others who have come from those countries in recent years, including relatives of the current child migrations. How the new child migrants and the parents who sometimes accompany them are to be classified has profound implications for both their protection from future deportation by the U.S. and their access to federal and state services that can facilitate their successful integration. To what extent are the migrants themselves conscious of these distinctions? How do their claims match up with current immigrations policies, practices and laws? How does the polarization in the current discourse affect the potential success of their claims and their ultimate integration? The paper will be based on an analysis of secondary sources (primarily media and reports) and direct interviews by the authors.

Author

• Norma S Chinchilla, California State University/Long Beach