Entry #10 Essay

 

TWO SIDES ON CHILDREN MIGRATION EXPERIENCES.

The desire of a better life is one of the many reasons why people decide to migrate. Throughout history, individual factors as well as socioeconomic ones have encouraged people to leave their country. It is a process that affects not only families and individuals in general, but children in particular. For some individuals, like refugees, migration to a new country is not a personal choice but a forced one. When it comes to refugee children, the experience differs greatly from that of children whose families moved by choice.  

First off, the causes of forced migration are already traumatizing enough for anyone, but they hit children especially hard as they have not developed yet or lack tools to confront that trauma. Thus, it affects them emotionally and mentally speaking. As the *UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta H. Fore said at a 2018 conference in Berlin: “Prolonged exposure to violence, fear and uncertainty can have a catastrophic impact on children’s learning, behaviour and emotional and social development for many years.” In spite of escaping from that conflict, these awful experiences may remain for a long time affecting their mental health. Besides that, in many cases it also leaves a number of unhealthy coping mechanisms. Nevertheless, this is absent in children whose families moved by choice. No matter what made their families take the decision to leave their country, they decided to migrate by choice; not being forced to do so. While it is true to say that this decision taken by the families may affect children somehow, they do not suffer the trauma of living a violent or tragic situation as refugee children do.

Secondly, it is common knowledge that most refugee children are separated from their families and travel alone; which doubles the risk for violence, exploitation, and abuse. According to UNICEF’s latest estimates, at least 300,000 unaccompanied and separated children were registered in 80 countries in a period of two years. Besides that, young girls can be the target of trafficking or gender-based violence. Their innocence and fear of being at a new place as well as the aftermath of traumatic events, leave these asylum seekers in a not favourable position while many vicious people take advantage of that. However, this seems not to be a problem for migrant children. They travel with their families who take great care of them and look after their needs. Although there are cases in which children must travel alone and then meet their families again, they arrange everything beforehand and study all the alternatives to provide their children a secure option. The lives of refugee children run quite a big risk which migrant children ignore. 

Thirdly, many of the factors mentioned above, and some many others, can also affect how much “at home” a refugee child feels in their host community. Beyond these challenges, however, those seeking asylum may also be affected by xenophobia and discrimination due to the fact that they come from a very different place. This leads to the feeling of isolation and loneliness, which makes it even more difficult to rebuild a life or gain that sense of normalcy again. This situation may not only affect refugees but migrant children in general. Besides that, encountering such a new culture and sometimes a completely new language, can also affect the way in how they feel part of the new community. All the emotional stress children have to cope with, arises a feeling of homesickness which makes the adaptation even more difficult. Even when attending school could help them feel part of the society, sometimes more than that is needed to make them feel this new place as home.  

In light of the above, migration presents two different faces depending on the circumstances children are exposed to. Although migrating for asylum and protection is hard because of all the problems it already faces, migrating by personal choice is not either easy; not even for children. Refugee children face a greater challenge more than just moving.