Abstract
The chapter explores how children and young people1 with migrant parents internalise a citizenship identity shaped by a discourse focused on victimisation, uncertainty and institutional mistrust. It is built on the idea that citizenship is a learning process sustained by individual and collective narratives and consists of memories, shared values and experiences (Somers, 1995 cited in Delanty, 2003: 602). The chapter revisits the axis domination-resistance and the dichotomy trust-mistrust by taking into account children’s strategies that avoid this binary. It suggests a more sensitive discussion of the dichotomy between trust and mistrust and argues that seeing children’s reactions to governance in exclusively deliberately and confrontational ways (for example trust vs. mistrust) is providing an unrefined understanding of their experiences which are not necessarily antagonistic. In order to overcome this crude reflection of children’s experiences in relation to power, the concept of slantwise actions is being proposed.
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© 2013 Maria-Carmen Pantea
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Pantea, MC. (2013). Negotiating ‘Children’s Best Interests’ in the Context of Parental Migration. In: Warming, H. (eds) Participation, Citizenship and Trust in Children’s Lives. Studies in Childhood and Youth. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137295781_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137295781_9
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