Future lives: Children’s geographies in transnational migration

Abstract

The overarching objective of this proposed study is to contribute to theorizations on children's geographies in transnational migration by interrogating the linkages among transnational migration, children's education and imagined futures, and talent migration. My contribution to existing scholarship, through this proposed research, is the conceptualization of the place of children in the intersections of familial aspirations and transnational migration. More specifically, I examine the place of children's education and imagined futures in the constructions of familial aspirations and the role of (talent) migration in achieving such desires. <br><br>The literature on transnational migration, as many scholars have noted, has only recently included the voices of children. The reason for such is the widely held positioning of children in the past as "luggage" (Orellana et al., 2001:578) or "weights" who have no agency of their own. I join the growing number of scholars who underscore the active role of children in the migration process.