Independent Child Migration

The issue of independent child migrants: children or young people who migrate without their parents, usually accords the children or youth no agency, and portrays them as dependents if not victims.  Within the policy context these children may be labelled unaccompanied minors. The research included within this catalogue will attempt to highlight the studies that do consider the agency of the child migrant. The children's perspectives, their voices, and experiences, their role and expectations of them all provide various understanding of independent child migration that is very different from the narrow discourse of trafficking and forced child labour.  The positives and negatives of independent child migration, on the child and their development are explored in much of the research here.