Challenging the odds of vulnerability and resilience in lone migration: Coping strategies of Zimbabwean unaccompanied minors in South Africa
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Date
2019
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Routledge
Abstract
Childhood vulnerability attracts more societal and scholarly attention than
child resilience. This article presents experiences of some Zimbabwean
Unaccompanied Minors (ZUMs) in South Africa as an example of
children who adapt to living as migrant minors separated from their
parents. Using life history and aspiration interviews with eighteen ZUMs,
we explore their coping strategies to test theoretical perceptions about
childhood vulnerability and expand knowledge of how they are being
affirmed and/or challenged. With research conducted in Makhado (Louis
Trichardt), a non-border town in South Africa, the article highlights the
nuances of ZUMs living in-shelter with catered needs versus ZUMs living
out-of-shelter and fending for themselves. The interconnected effects of
this on the children’s agency, vulnerability and resilience, now and
potentially in future are also explored. In engaging the philosophy that
some childhoods are inherently difficult, the study confirms that some
ZUMs cope successfully despite being caught-up in tensions between
structure-agency and vulnerability-resilience. The coping strategies of
ZUMs reinforced some forms of vulnerability, while they camouflaged or
silenced others. This cautions against the adoption of uncritical, or
generic views about children’s agency and capabilities. The study
concludes that individual and societal context matter greatly in
discourses about child agency, vulnerability and resilience.
Description
Keywords
Agency, Resilience, Vulnerability, Migration, Unaccompanied minors, South Africa
Citation
Adefehinti, B., & Arts, K. (2019). Challenging the odds of vulnerability and resilience in lone migration: coping strategies of Zimbabwean unaccompanied minors in South Africa. Children’s Geographies, 17(4), 427–441. https://doi.org/10.1080/14733285.2018.1536776