Children Crossing Borders: Latin American Migrant Childhoods ed. by Alejandra J. Josiowicz and Irasema Coronado (review)

Reviewed by: Children Crossing Borders: Latin American Migrant Childhoods ed. by Alejandra J. Josiowicz and Irasema Coronado Jorge Zapata Alejandra J. Josiowicz and Irasema Coronado (Eds.) Children Crossing Borders: Latin American Migrant Childhoods. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press, 2022. x + 246 pp. Table, notes, references, index. $35 paperback (ISBN 978-0-816-54619-0). The multivulnerability of migrant children is one of the unintended consequences of international migration, and a subject of study with political and ethical implications that demands the attention of scholars and social scientists. This problematic scenario is especially notorious on the U.S.-Mexico border, where many families are separated and children fall into the juvenile care system of U.S. institutions, where issues of racism and xenophobia are triggered in schools, making it difficult for children to adapt to these social environments. This situation is no less dramatic for immigrant families and children around the world, [End Page 242] such as in Western Europe, which is the destination of migrants who often come from Eastern Europe, Africa, and Asia. But it is a problem that often slips under the radar of international migration researchers. For this reason, Children Crossing Borders: Latin American Migrant Childhoods is a valuable contribution to migration studies that focuses on excluded migrant populations, i.e., those families and groups of migrants who are racialized, excluded by nationality, gender, age, and immigration status. This book offers an interdisciplinary perspective on the problem of Latin American migrant children in international border areas. The book's editors, Alejandra J. Josiowicz and Irasema Coronado, claim that the main goal of the book is to provide tools for public policy, education, legislation, and the arts and literature to combat the racism, sexism, xenophobia, and nationalism that affect migrant children in schools, host institutions, and communities. The book is based on two main perspectives. One is the decolonial perspective on migrant childhoods in the Americas, which states that the historically unequal socioeconomic structure of international migrants can be traced back to European imperialism and colonialism. This colonialism continues to have a strong influence on the production of knowledge about child migration across the Americas. This perspective is an attempt to articulate a common research agenda on migrant children, with the purpose of giving voice to diverse knowledges, subjects, languages, and methods of research. It is about developing new Global South epistemologies to counter intellectual colonialism. It is a social and scientific practice of knowledge exchange. The second perspective brings together interdisciplinarity, intersectionality, and transnationality. It describes borders as dynamic territories of social conflict, allowing us to conceptualize childhood and its representations, as well as migration, as complex social realities. Thus, this book makes an important contribution with great potential to influence migration legislation and policies related to the phenomenon of child migration in the border areas of the Americas. These children are generally marginalized and considered outsiders in society because they are minors and are labeled with the stigma of being troubled and violent—a perception that persists in the media. Living in border territories has different meanings in children's lives. Borders are not only geographical, they are also social, ethnic, and racial. Therefore, the authors of the chapters in this book—scholars from Latin America, the United States, and Canada who contribute their research to child migration in the Americas—use an intersectional approach that includes relational categories such as nationality, citizenship, ethnicity, gender, and race to understand the experiences of children and their families in school life, and how migration policies affect all aspects of their lives. The current migration situation, as a permanent crisis in the Americas, requires the integration of different study approaches that provide an empirical and conceptual framework to offer useful tools for institutions involved in public policies on child migration. The transnational approach also [End Page 243] calls for reflection on the differentiated and simultaneous impacts of child migration in different sociopolitical contexts. The book is organized into three sections. The first, which comprises three chapters, looks at the environments and challenges of educating migrant children from deported or exiled families. The emotional stress is the most obvious consequence faced by children growing up in racialized...

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