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Migrant Children, Global Consumer Culture, and Multiple Belongings: Children’s Experiences of Migrating to Ireland

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Movement, Mobilities, and Journeys

Part of the book series: Geographies of Children and Young People ((GCYP,volume 6))

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Abstract

Constructions of migrant children and young people within research and policy in host societies often emphasize their (lack of) “integration” (or belonging) in host society contexts, more so than their experiences as transnational migrants with complex senses of belonging. Hegemonic assumptions of migrant children as being different and “not-belonging” in host society contexts often reproduce, and are reproduced by, public fears around difference, social conflict, and anxieties about the future.

The research and data cited in this chapter were generated as part of a project exploring the experiences of children moving to, and living in, Ireland. The chapter focuses in particular on the ways in which migrant children and young people in Ireland construct different senses of belonging in and across multiple scales as part of the negotiation of their social and cultural identities as migrants and as children/young people. Migrant children and young people form attachments and detachments which often challenge assumptions that are made by others about whether or to what they should belong. As part of these arguments, the chapter explores the complexity of migrant children’s and young people’s lives through a particular focus on their consumption of global consumer culture as part of processes of belonging.

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Note

Portions of this chapter also appear in White, A., Carpena-Méndez, F., Ní Laoire, C., Tyrrell, N. (2012) Children’s words, children’s worlds: exploring the experiences of migrant children in Ireland. In: Ireland in a Global World: Migrations. (M. Gilmartin and A. White, eds.), Manchester: Manchester University Press, and in Ní Laoire C., F. Carpena-Méndez, N. Tyrell and A. White (2011) Childhood and Migration in Europe. London: Ashgate.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Arts, Celtic Studies and Social Sciences, University College Cork, Western Road, Cork, Ireland

    Allen White

  2. School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Plymouth University, Drake Circus, PL4 8AA, Plymouth, UK

    Naomi Tyrrell

  3. School of Applied Social Studies, University College Cork, Western Road, Cork, Ireland

    Caitríona Ní Laoire

  4. Department of Anthropology, Oregon State University, 212 2250 SW Jefferson Way Corvallis, OR 97331, Waldo Hall, Corvallis, OR, USA

    Fina Carpena-Méndez

Authors
  1. Allen White
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  2. Naomi Tyrrell
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  3. Fina Carpena-Méndez
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  4. Caitríona Ní Laoire
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Allen White .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Applied Social Studies, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland

    Caitriona Ni Laoire

  2. College of Arts, Celtic Studies and Social Sciences, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland

    Allen White

  3. Department of Geography, National University of Singapore , Singapore, Singapore

    Tracey Skelton

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White, A., Tyrrell, N., Carpena-Méndez, F., Ní Laoire, C. (2017). Migrant Children, Global Consumer Culture, and Multiple Belongings: Children’s Experiences of Migrating to Ireland. In: Ni Laoire, C., White, A., Skelton, T. (eds) Movement, Mobilities, and Journeys. Geographies of Children and Young People, vol 6. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-029-2_31

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