Migrant Youth, Transnational Families, and the State: Care and Contested Interests (Pennsylvania Studies in Human Rights)

"Through interviews with children and their families, attorneys, social workers, policy-makers, law enforcement representatives, and diplomats, anthropologist Lauren Heidbrink foregrounds the voices of migrant children and youth who must navigate the legal and emotional terrain of U.S. immigration policy. Cast as victims by humanitarian organizations and delinquents by law enforcement, these unauthorized minors challenge Western constructions of child dependence and family structure. Heidbrink illuminates the enduring effects of immigration enforcement on its young charges, their families, and the state, ultimately questioning whose interests drive decisions about the care and custody of migrant youth."--