Children who cross borders : unaccompanied migrant children in South Africa.

Abstract

This dissertation explores the experiences and perspectives of unaccompanied migrant children in Johannesburg South Africa. The children are between the ages of thirteen to nineteen and are all from Zimbabwe. The research focuses on how the young immigrants undertook their journey managing to find ways around the spaces and people they met along the way. The research demonstrates how the vulnerability which research participants feel was not constant. It oscillated depending primarily on spaces and social relationships which children encountered. Through ethnography and the life history approach, the daily experiences of the young people are looked at to provide an understanding of the way they dealt and are still dealing with their vulnerability. The intention being to show that vulnerability is always shifting and being shifted by young people.