Changing childhoods: Migrant children and the confrontation of uncertainty

Abstract

‘Being a refugee means learning from your children instead of teaching them yourself’. These are the words of a 43-year-old writer from Turkey, father of three. He is a refugee in Greece, where he works as a tailor. Language, the tool of his trade, is what he can no longer use, even for his own children. In contrast to her father, 12-year-old Boran, who is fluent in both Greek and her mother tongue, sits beside her father and translates what he says, and at the same time explains how frustrated he feels that he cannot communicate with the people around him.

Citation

Christopoulou, N. and de Leeuw, S. (2008), "Changing childhoods: Migrant children and the confrontation of uncertainty", Leira, A. and Saraceno, C. (Ed.) Childhood: Changing Contexts (Comparative Social Research, Vol. 25), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 239-264. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0195-6310(07)00008-7