Final Activity Report Summary - MIGRANT CHILDREN (Children's and young people's experiences of immigration and integration in Irish society) This project has challenged dominant assumptions about child migration which tend to construct migrant children in selective ways. It has addressed gaps in existing research by accessing children's and young people's perspectives on issues relating to recent immigration to Ireland, through an exploration of the social worlds of migrant children/youth in Ireland from their own perspectives, using children-centred research methodologies. The research was conducted through 4 in-depth qualitative studies: Strand A: African/Irish Children's Experiences of and Integration into Irish Society. Strand B: From Central and Eastern Europe to Ireland: Children's Experiences of Migration. Strand C: Latin American Migrant Children Growing Up in Ireland. Strand D: Coming Home? Children in Returning Irish Families. Research was conducted with 194 children and young people, age 3-18, across Ireland, in urban, suburban and rural locations, through families, schools, youth clubs and an asylum accommodation centre. In April 2008, the team hosted a major international conference entitled 'Children and Migration: identities, mobility's and belonging(s)'. It was attended by 140 delegates from a range of international and disciplinary backgrounds, who presented 80 papers over 3 days. Arising from the conference, 2 journal special issues which aim to make a major contribution to knowledge in the fields of migration and childhood studies have been submitted by the team. Presentations have been made by team members at 47 national and international scholarly events. Six articles based on project findings/methodologies have been submitted to international peer-reviewed journals, covering the following themes:- the use of visual methodologies in research with children. - the ways in which the politics of migration impacts upon the everyday geographies of immigrant young people. - the contribution of research with children who migrate or live mobile lives to understandings of how children form attachments and belongings. - how involving children as active research participants can highlight internal dynamics in migrant families and can challenge hegemonic constructs of return migration. - challenging the selectivities and invisibilities which characterise transnational child migration research. - methodological issues in research with children seeking asylum. Ten further articles on the themes of childhood and migration will be submitted to international peer-reviewed journals. A key output of the research will be a team-authored book, 'Childhood and Migration in Europe: portraits from contemporary Ireland', to be published in 2010 as part of Ashgate's Studies in Migration and Diaspora Series. The book will broaden current conceptualisations of child migration and integration and highlight that while migrant children's worlds are circumscribed by powerful social, economic and political structures, they also exert agency in actively creating their own worlds through their encounters with these structures. The project has produced socially relevant research, of value to policy-makers, practitioners and researchers across Europe. The findings of the research have been disseminated widely through the publication and launch of the Final Report and 'Tell me about yourself: migrant children's experiences of moving to and living in Ireland', which is accompanied by a set of postcards aimed specifically at a young audience. These have been distributed to relevant stakeholders and participants; the Report is available to download from the project website http://migration.ucc.ie/children. Findings have also been disseminated at a number of other events for key stakeholders in the areas of education, migrant support and youth work.
