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Palgrave Macmillan

Separated Migrant Young Women in State Care

Living in Contested Spaces

  • Book
  • © 2022

Overview

Authors:
  1. Rachel Larkin

    1. School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research, University of Kent, Chatham Maritime, UK

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  • Includes the voices of young separated women and allows for them to tell their own stories
  • Fills a gap in the research on migrant and trafficked young women in care
  • Examines the complexities of micro-spaces where separated young women meet state actors

Part of the book series: Studies in Childhood and Youth (SCY)

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Table of contents (9 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xv
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  2. Youth Migration and the State

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
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    2. Introduction: Barriers, Borders, and Care

      • Rachel Larkin
      Pages 3-21

    3. The Refugee Child: Images and Imaginings

      • Rachel Larkin
      Pages 23-45

    4. Separated Girlhood

      • Rachel Larkin
      Pages 47-68

    5. Separated Children in State Care

      • Rachel Larkin
      Pages 69-97

  3. Research Data: Who Do You See?

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 99-99
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    2. Threshold Stories: Meeting the Giant

      • Rachel Larkin
      Pages 101-125

    3. Living in Spaces of State Care

      • Rachel Larkin
      Pages 127-144

    4. Trust, (Dis)Belief, and Love

      • Rachel Larkin
      Pages 145-155

    5. Interconnecting Spaces

      • Rachel Larkin
      Pages 157-173

  4. Implications and New Directions

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 175-175
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    2. Conclusion: Disrupting the Giant

      • Rachel Larkin
      Pages 177-205

  5. Back Matter

    Pages 207-212
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Keywords

About this book

This book considers the responses of states to migrant girls who are separated from family and enter state care systems as unaccompanied or trafficked young people. The book draws on research with girls and social work practitioners in the UK to explore what can happen when separated girls encounter professionals at borders and within care systems. It considers how separated girls adapt to different ideas of what it means to be a girl in destination countries, and how this is affected by their other intersecting identities. The book identifies how girls can feel welcomed, but also how young migrants can be seen in excluding ways. It argues that narratives of the fragile ‘refugee child’ are unhelpful ways to understand individual girls. Using theories and clear language relevant to both academics and practitioners, the author fills a gap in the research on migrant and trafficked young women who frequently represent the minority in care systems globally. 

Reviews

“This is a compelling, insightful contribution to migration literature, which uses theory and research in a considered way to explore the complex interactions between separated girls and social workers. With a global appeal, it will be of value to policy makers, researchers, and practitioners across disciplines. It challenges us to consider how social work can exclude and be complicit in racist migration policies, while also highlighting the hopeful possibilities when working with refugee populations.” (Muireann Ní Raghallaigh, Associate Professor, University College Dublin, Ireland)

“This is an excellent book about social work and separated girls crossing borders, which uses an inclusive and intersectional definition of girlhood. It is also a book that spells out sharply why caring is an urgent political act when we meet each other, human-to-human, in border spaces”. (Lauren Wroe, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Durham University, UK)

“Theoretically nuanced, methodologically inventive, and written with compassion, this book provides a state of the art analysis of what it means to be a ‘separated girl’ crossing borders and encountering social workers in the hostile environment of the contemporary British state. Combining a wide ranging review of research and policy with insights from qualitative data, this is an accessible, hopeful, and well written account that will excite students, researchers and practitioners alike.” (Rachel Thomson, Professor of Childhood and Youth Studies, University of Sussex, UK)

Authors and Affiliations

  • School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research, University of Kent, Chatham Maritime, UK

    Rachel Larkin

About the author

Rachel Larkin is Lecturer in Social Work at University of Kent, UK. She has worked extensively in Children and Families services and with young people affected by immigration systems. She co-edited Social Work with Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Migrants (2019).  

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