Understanding Transnational Childhoods Through Young Immigrant Children's Photographs

• In Event: Elevating Youth Voices: Documenting Journeys of Migration and Separation

Abstract

Child-centered methods such as drawing and mapping are effective ways for researchers to study children’s fluid and mobile experiences through centralizing children’s eyes and voices. Using photographs, in particular, is compelling because it can give children agency and power, and offer them opportunities to showcase their knowledge and experiences. As part of a multi-sited ethnographic project, I invited the participant children to take photographs of their everyday practices in the United States and Korea so as to share about their transnational childhoods through their images and stories. In this article, I describe the three children’s mobile experiences and explain how using photographs, which gave them agency, power, and opportunities to share their knowledge, allowed me to learn about transnational childhoods.

Author

• Jungmin Kwon, Michigan State University