The experience of immigrant Children in United States: theoretical and methodological challenges.

• In Event: Retos metodológicos en la etnografía de la infancia/juventud en contextos migratorios

Abstract

This paper analyzes the experience of immigrant children from Central America to the United States. Immigration has an important impact on individuals and families. Children are particularly affected by the changes undergone by their families as well as by their own experiences in the process of migration. One of the factors that affect children the most has to do with the long years of separation from their parents that immigrants from Central Americans have been experiencing in the last two decades.
In this paper I will discuss the experiences of immigrant children arriving to United States in the context of transnational families, both children called by their parents and unaccompanied children, focusing on the theoretical perspective used to understand the unique characteristic of immigrant children as well as the particular challenges of finding a methodological tool to capture this unique experience of children and its consequences.

Author

• Sara Z Poggio, University of Maryland/Baltimore County