Editorial introduction: Situated agency in the context of research on children, migration, and family in Asia

• Published in: Population space and place Vol. 25; no. 3
• Main Authors: Choi, Susanne Y.P., Yeoh, Brenda S.A., Lam, Theodora
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.04.2019
• Subjects: agency; Asia; Borders; Children; Employment policies; Ethnic groups; Ethnicity; family; Labor migration; migration; Parents & parenting; Transnationalism; Asia
• ISSN: 1544-8444; 1544-8452
• DOI: 10.1002/psp.2149

Given far less attention than adult members in the burgeoning migration scholarship, children (and their parents) are brought to the foreground in this themed section as agentic subjects whose lives are linked to and impacted by migration processes operating across borders. In tandem with this focus, this special‐themed section situates the agency of children and their parents within broader socio‐economic structures of regional inequalities, local economic stagnation and cross‐border demand for low‐waged labour, state policy failures, ethnic group disparities, technological advances that facilitate cross‐border mobility, and the transnational performance of familyhood. By incorporating children's relationships with people and places nearby and afar and situating their agency within broader socio‐economic and political contexts, we hope that the analytical framework of “situated agency” developed in this themed section will encourage more studies linking macro structures with micro interpersonal dynamics and actions in growing Asia‐based research related to migration and mobility across space and place.