Voices of childhood with a migrant background: identity and participation in disadvantaged contexts

Abstract

This article addresses the complex issue of child participation and identity among children from an immigrant family in Spain. Through focus groups carried out within the framework of a broader qualitative study on education, culture, identity and gender, it provides results regarding the participation of this childhood in their family and in school, the two main spaces for socialization at these ages, and how such participation affects the construction of their identities. The results show how some continuities are reproduced with respect to previous studies, such as the influence of socioeconomic factors, mobility patterns or the role of adults. However, new elements also appear to be highlighted: models of hybrid participation, of polyhedral identities, or of imports into the host society of values ??and practices that belong to the global discourse today. A careful analysis of these factors should allow us to elucidate how to guarantee more and better the rights of children included in the 1989 Convention, especially those related to free opinion and expression.