Childhood and Migration in Central and North America : Causes, Policies, Practices and Challenges

Human Rights, Children, and Migration results from a two-year, multi-partner, multi-national and regional investigation into the treatment of Honduran, Salvadoran, Guatemalan, Mexican, and United States citizen and permanent resident children affected by migration. The book illuminates the overall gaps in protection and in guaranteeing rights for children and adolescents affected by migration. It examines the root causes of children and family migration in the region and its recent spike, and explores whether conditions and policies in children’s countries of origin, transit countries, and destination countries in the region protect their best interests and ensure their rights. It also assesses whether host or destination countries effectively integrate children and adolescents affected by migration, and whether existing programs ensure—on a case-by-case basis—safe and sustainable reintegration of repatriated children and adolescents. Interviews with children and adolescents, parents, and key social and political actors in the five countries studied, combined with the experience of experts working with migrant children and adolescents on a range of issues, form the basis of the book’s findings and recommendations