Doctoral student Amy Thompson and colleagues drew from 32 in-depth interviews with Mexican and Central American children held in Mexican immigration detention centers to understand how they express their agency as they try to navigate their way to the U.S.-Mexico border. The authors challenge popular narratives that cast migrant children as either victims or criminals, and argue instead for an approach that embraces children’s rights and vulnerabilities while acknowledging their resiliencies, competencies, goals and strengths. Results were published in the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.
The Magazine of the Steve Hicks Schools of Social Work at The University of Texas at Austin
