Contents

1 Introduction................................................................................................................................... 388

2 State Ambivalence and the Production of Family Separation and Reunification.......................

3 Children Left Behind.................................................................................................................... 393

4 Migrating Children and Family Reunification.............................................................................. 398

4.1 Filipino Children of Domestic Workers: Reunification in Canada...................................... 399

4.2 Japanese Filipino Children Returning to Japan.................................................................... 400

4.3 Children Migrants from Mexico and Central America........................................................ 401

5 Transnationalism and New Visions of Belonging......................................................................... 403

6 Conclusion..................................................................................................................................... 404

References........................................................................................................................................... 405

Abstract

This chapter reviews the scholarly literature on the economic migration of families, in particular, family separation, reunification, with especial focus on the children implicated in the Filipino labor diaspora and Latin American migra­tion to the United States. The experiences of children in families separated through economic migration occur across a range of circumstances: from those left behind in their home countries while their parents work abroad, to those born to temporary migrants and subsequently separated from their mothers when they are sent “home” to be cared for by relatives, to those who migrate to join their parents after a period of family separation. The lives of these children are adversely affected by governments’ ambivalences about the rights and citizenship entitlements both of temporary work migrants and of children.

G. Pratt (*)

Department of Geography, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada e-mail: gpratt@geog.ubc.ca

© Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2017 387

C. Harker et al. (eds.), Conflict, Violence and Peace, Geographies of Children and

Young People 11, DOI 10.1007/978-981-287-038-4_13 differences in the experiences of different groups of children - in this chapter between those migrating from the Philippines and Mexico and Central America, there are some similarities across their experiences of separation and reunification, in terms of the emotional consequences of transnational separation and reunification, and adverse effects on educational achievement. The violence considered in this chapter is the mundane, chronic, and everyday violence of poverty, social and economic marginalization, and feelings of abandonment. Children and youths are not passive in the face of these challenges, and brief attention is given to their capacity to address them.

Keywords

Transnational families • Labor migrants • Filipino children • Mexican children • Deportation • Undocumented migrants

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