and the Construction of Vulnerability - Child Trafficking

8. Future Research Priorities and
Policy Implications
Given the general dearth of research on child migration, the topic itself might be
described as a future research priority. However, until the conceptual and definitional
problems discussed in Section 3 are addressed, and a robust theoretical and
analytical framework for research is developed, studies of child migration are unlikely
to yield reliable and relevant data. There is thus an urgent need for theory development,
and in particular, for greater dialogue between scholars and activists who
work on migration and migrants’ rights, and those who work on childhood and children’s
rights. Beyond this, there is an especially pressing need for:
● Regional reviews of immigration apparatuses and their effects on children in
terms of a) children’s opportunities to migrate independently through legal channels;
b) children’s opportunities to legally accompany migrating parents/carers;
c) the type and degree of dependence upon adults implied by different visas.
● Research examining the impact of border control enforcement on child migrants,
in particular, systematic disaggregation of existing data on border deaths by age,
and comparative analysis of such data, as well as in-depth, qualitative research to
document the experience in transit of children who have migrated through irregular
channels.
● Regional research documenting the violation of children’s rights in detention and
reception centres, and in deportation proceedings.
● Research investigating a) the social processes that construct some child migrants
as “Victims of Trafficking” or “Child Asylum Seekers” with entitlement to various
forms of assistance and protection, and others who have experienced similar
levels of abuse, exploitation and rights violations as “illegal immigrants” with
little or no entitlement to protection and assistance; b) the way in which decisions
are made about which children are and are not vulnerable to further rights
violations if returned to their country of origin; and c) what happens to repatriated
children following their return. There is also a need for research on what
happens to child VoTs who do qualify for temporary leave to remain in the destination
country and to evaluate the outcomes of “social rehabilitation” programmes
for VoTs.
● Cross-national comparative studies investigating the presence (or absence) of
migrants below the age of 18 in economic sectors known to depend heavily on
cheap and unprotected migrant labour, and the factors that explain this presence/absence.
● Research on the range of different ways in which migrant children earn money
in the informal sector, the extent to which different informal economic activities
are associated with third-party exploitation, the ways in which gender,
race/ethnicity and nationality impact on the informal sector earning opportuni-
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