Children’s Agency in Migration Strategies and Integration Scenarios

Abstract

The article presents case studies examining various forms of children’s agency in migrant’s strategies and migration scenarios. Drawn on interviews and field research among migrant families in a large Russian city, it is thematically split into two parts. The first discusses the role of children in making decisions on the country of residence and education in the context of family migration. Here, a number of cases are taken to demonstrate how obstacles to education access influence children’s agency and how the latter gets embedded in family responsibilities. The second part specifically addresses a practice of acquiring a “Russian” name, that is the practice of engaging children in Russian-speaking communities that may be observed in the educational milieu.