Title: Migrating Children, Households, and the Post-Socialist State: An
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Title: Migrating Children, Households, and the Post-Socialist State: An ethnographic study of migration and non-migration by children and youth in an ethnic Lao village Author: Roy Bernardus Cornelis HUIJSMANS Material Abstract: Against a background of processes of rural change that are on the brink of unfolding in the Lao PDR and triggered by capitalist expansion and agendas of regional integration, the rural population has become increasingly mobile. Studies have shown that it is primarily the young population that is involved in migration, and a considerable proportion of these young migrants is below the age of 18 and, therefore, technically of child-age. Through the theoretical lens of rural change these young migrants are depicted as actors of social change who through their involvement in migration rework their own social position but also contribute to wider processes of change. However, young people’s involvement is mostly presented as an issue of human trafficking in which the young migrants are depicted as the victims of processes of capitalist expansion. This study has broken down the binary representation of young migrants as either victims of change or agents of change. Detailed ethnographic accounts have revealed the various structuring relations shaping different forms of migration in which young Lao are involved. It has further illuminated how young villagers, as social actors, subtly negotiate the process of becoming and not becoming a young migrant, and, once at migration destination, exercise agency in the workplace, although often in a constrained manner. These constraints, it is argued, are in part produced by the indigenisation of the modern notion of childhood and global migration discourses. The institutionalisation of a modern childhood contributes to bringing the young population within state spaces, allowing the state to impose itself on this politically important segment of the population for an increasing number of years. However, young people’s involvement in migration undermines these efforts, thereby, contributing to making the political space for addressing the urgent issue of harm in migration, other than by removing minors from migration, a very narrow one. Migrating Children, Households, and the Post-Socialist State - An ethnographic study of migration and non-migration by children and youth in an ethnic Lao village - Roy Bernardus Cornelis HUIJSMANS Thesis submitted for Ph.D. degree Department of Geography Durham University 2010 Table of Contents Table of Contents ...................................................................................................................2 List of Tables .........................................................................................................................6 List of Figures ........................................................................................................................7 List of Pictures .......................................................................................................................8 List of Pictures .......................................................................................................................8 List of Text boxes ..................................................................................................................8 List of Abbreviations .............................................................................................................9 List of Abbreviations .............................................................................................................9 Statement of Copyright ........................................................................................................11 Acknowledgements..............................................................................................................12 1 Setting the Case............................................................................................................14 1.1 Rationale ..............................................................................................................14 1.2 Research questions...............................................................................................17 1.3 Contextualising the research................................................................................18 1.3.1 The research village .....................................................................................21 1.4 Organisation of the dissertation ...........................................................................25 1.5 Conclusion ...........................................................................................................26 2 Migration and Non-migration by Children and Young People: Theoretical and conceptual points of departure .............................................................................................28 2.1 Introduction: Child migration, childhood, households and the state ...................28 2.2 Children, childhood and youth.............................................................................30 2.2.1 Childhood and youth as social constructs, and the construction of ‘child migration’.....................................................................................................................30 2.2.2 A relational approach to the study of young migrants .................................34 2.2.3 Conceptualising agency...............................................................................35 2.3 Residential living arrangements and the role of children: Lived realities, analytical fields, and normative constructs ......................................................................36 2.3.1 Rural Lao households, children’s (migrant) work, and rural change...........38 2.3.2 Households as analytical fields: Bargaining, social relations, and Bourdieu 42 2.4 Children, families, and the (post-socialist) state: Claims on childhood and youth 47 2.5 Conclusion ...........................................................................................................50 3 Researching Young Lives: Practice, theory, and context ............................................52 3.1 Introduction: Methodological orientation ............................................................52 3.2 Methodological considerations contextualised ....................................................53 3.3 Ethnographic research with children and young people in the Lao context: Reflections on theory and practice...................................................................................54 3.3.1 Developing an ethnographic research orientation in Baan Naam................54 3.3.2 Ethnography and research with children and young people ........................56 3.3.3 Methodological dilemmas: Positionality and ethics ....................................57 3.3.4 Ethics............................................................................................................61 3.4 Methods and data .................................................................................................65 3.4.1 Household survey.........................................................................................69 3.4.2 Bi-monthly interviews..................................................................................70 3.4.3 Targeted semi-structured interviews............................................................74 3.4.4 Photo material and essay writing .................................................................74 2 3.4.5 Focus group discussions...............................................................................77 3.5 Data processing and analysis ...............................................................................79 3.5.1 Analysis and presentation ............................................................................80 3.6 Scope, limitations and other issues ......................................................................82 3.7 Conclusion ...........................................................................................................85 4 Contextualising Changes and Continuities in Migration .............................................86 4.1 Introduction..........................................................................................................86 4.2 Economic and political factors shaping migration and mobility in Baan Naam: A brief historical account.....................................................................................................87 4.2.1 The pre-socialist era (1953-1975) ................................................................91 4.2.2 The socialist era (1975-1986).......................................................................93 4.2.3 From socialism to post-socialism.................................................................95 4.3 Qualitative changes in migration and mobility in Baan Naam ............................98 4.3.1 Changes in the direction of migration flows................................................98 4.3.2 From crossing a river to crossing a border...................................................99 4.3.3 The emergence of work as a motivation for cross-border mobility...........100 4.3.4 Changes and continuities in the mobility of sons and daughters ...............101 4.3.5 Lao and Thai childhoods: An intimate relation of interdependence..........102 4.3.6 Of modernity and tradition: Lao-Thai relations.........................................104 4.4 Migration policies in