Children of migration as brokers of 'care'

Dates: Tuesday, November 30, 2021 - 18:00 to 19:00
Location: Berrill Lecture Theatre, Walton Hall, The Open University, MK6 7AA

In her inaugural lecture, Professor Sarah Crafter will explore what it means for children and young people to be ‘brokers of care’ in the context of migration. What does it mean for young people to provide care for others, such as family members, peers and the local community? What does it mean for children and young people to be receivers of care in the context of a hostile immigration environment?

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Abstract

Drawing on her research with child language brokers (young translators) and separated child migrants, Professor Crafter will explore transitions to adulthood through a sociocultural and critical psychological lens. By doing so, transitions are seen as a dynamic process of change influenced by wider discourses and practices about what means to be a child and how we think about childhood across different socio -cultural, political and historical contexts. Intersecting with this wider landscape is a focus on dynamic change that occurs within a person’s sphere of experience, and in the interactions and relationships with others and objects.

Watch a video trailer of Sarah Crafter's lecture:

The transition to adulthood holds particular challenges for children of migration. In my inaugural lecture I will bring some of those challenges to life using examples from my own research with child language brokers, who translate and interpret for family and friends, and lone child migrants; children migrating without kin. I will draw on the concepts of ‘care’ and ‘critical childhoods’ to show how anti-immigration contexts frame children’s lived experience.

About Professor Sarah Crafter

Sarah Crafter is a Professor in Cultural-Developmental Psychology in the School of Psychology and Counselling in the OU’s Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Her work is broadly interested in young people’s migration experiences and how they impact on their everyday lives, particularly transitions to adulthood. She is currently undertaking the following projects relating to this topic: Children Caring on the Move; NEW ABC: Networking the educational world: Across boundaries for community-building and Empowering Young Language Brokers for Inclusion in Diversity (EYLBID).