About Us

The working group on childhood and migration was founded in 2005 by scholars who wished to bring a human face to children's experiences of migration, including children who are left behind, children who move back and forth, and children who settle in a strange land. We now have over sixty members at universities all over the world who study and report on issues such as how migration changes children's notions of self, strategies that parents and families use to handle child-rearing when they find they must migrate, and changing notions of childhood across cultures. We are especially interested in informing and reforming how societies can better nurture children's natural capabilities, inclinations and needs, specifically as they are interrupted or altered by migration journeys.

Our interdisciplinary Working Group held its first Conference on Childhood and Migration: “Emerging Perspectives on Children in Migratory Circumstances.” The conference took place in June 2008 at Drexel University in Philadelphia with support from the U.S. National Science Foundation, Drexel University, and Rutgers University, Camden.  At this inauguaral conference, we welcomed researchers and policy advocates from all disciplines and all areas of the world whose work focuses on the ways that increased migration affects children and the cultural, legal, educational, medical, and psychological perception of childhood.The conference was well attended and it was great to have a chance to meet each other in person.

Please explore our research notes on childhood and migration, biographies of our research members and the expertise they can offer, and bibliographies of interest. Check here periodically also to see links to important funding sources for research on childhood and migration, announcements of specials issues, journals, conference, etc. and links to organizations working with children and migration.

For the Press: We encourage you to contact our working group members, all of whom are expert contacts on multiple issues.  Our rotating research notes section may also be of use to help flesh out stories or to provide basic information.

Call for Contributors: We are soliciting contributions for our web collection of research notes and contributions for our electronic gallery of visual and audio materials called Migration through Children’s Eyes.  If you are an academic researcher or a professional working with migrant populations, please consider sending us your contributions or suggestions.