For too long, the narrative of migration has been an adult-centric one. Children and teenagers, when mentioned at all, were often portrayed as passive travelers, simply part of the “baggage” accompanying their parents. But a growing body of research, championed by pioneering scholars, has begun to unravel the rich, complex, and often challenging experiences of young people on the move. Researchers like Sarah Holloway, Jacqueline Knörr, Karen Fog Olwig, and Marjorie Faulstich Orellana have not only illuminated these experiences but have passionately encouraged the academic world to delve deeper, recognizing children and teenagers as active agents in their own migratory journeys.
Their collective work has been a clarion call, urging us to shift our lens and understand that migration is a profoundly different experience when viewed through the eyes of a child or adolescent.
Pioneering Voices: How Holloway, Knörr, Olwig, and Orellana Shaped the Field
These four researchers, while distinct in their specific focuses, share a common thread: a commitment to centering children’s perspectives and highlighting their agency.

• Sarah L. Holloway and the Geographies of Childhood: Holloway, a key figure in “children’s geographies,” has urged researchers to consider how children experience, perceive, and shape space and place. Her foundational work, such as Children’s Geographies: Playing, Living, Learning (co-edited with Gill Valentine), encourages an understanding of children as active social agents. While not exclusively focused on migration, her theoretical framework is crucial. It implicitly calls for migration studies to explore how migrant children navigate and make sense of new and often multiple environments, how their identities are formed in these new spatial contexts, and how their daily lives are impacted by mobility. By emphasizing that children are not just “adults in waiting” but individuals with their own distinct experiences of the world, Holloway’s work encourages research that takes seriously the lived realities of migrant youth.
• Jacqueline Knörr and the Agency of Migrant Children: Knörr’s edited volume, Childhood and Migration: From Experience to Agency, is a landmark contribution. It directly confronts the historical tendency to overlook children’s perspectives in migration studies. Knörr and her contributors argue compellingly for viewing children as active participants—agents—in their migration processes. Her key finding and theoretical push is the shift from seeing children as passive victims or mere dependents to recognizing their capacity to act, make decisions, and shape their own experiences within the migratory context. This explicitly encourages researchers to investigate how children negotiate cultural change, build identities, and even influence family decisions related to migration. By highlighting this “agency,” Knörr’s work has paved the way for studies that explore the resilience, adaptability, and active contributions of young migrants.
• Karen Fog Olwig and Transnational Childhoods: Olwig’s ethnographic work, particularly on Caribbean migration (e.g., Caribbean Journeys: An Ethnography of Migration and Home in Three Family Networks), has been instrumental in understanding the complexities of transnational family life and the children within them. She has shown how children are not just affected by migration but are integral to maintaining family ties and cultural connections across borders. Her key findings reveal the nuanced ways children construct a sense of ‘home’ and belonging when their lives span multiple locations. Olwig’s research on “transnational childhoods” encourages scholars to examine how children navigate these stretched social fields, the emotional labor involved, and how their identities are shaped by these fluid, multi-sited realities. She draws attention to those who migrate and those “left behind,” urging a holistic understanding of children’s roles in global migration patterns.
• Marjorie Faulstich Orellana and Children as Active Contributors: Orellana’s research, exemplified in Translating Childhoods: Immigrant Youth, Language, and Culture, has powerfully illuminated the often-invisible contributions of immigrant children and teenagers. Her groundbreaking findings center on the concept of “language brokering” – where children act as translators and cultural mediators for their families in critical settings like schools, healthcare, and legal matters. Orellana demonstrates that this is not just a task, but a complex form of labor that shapes children’s cognitive development, social skills, and sense of responsibility. By showcasing children as competent social actors and contributors, her work directly encourages researchers to move beyond deficit views of immigrant children and instead examine their skills, resilience, and the crucial roles they play in family adaptation and integration. She encourages an examination of the “work” children do and how it impacts their experiences and development.
  The Collective Impact: A New Era for Migration Research
  The contributions of Holloway, Knörr, Olwig, and Orellana have collectively fostered a paradigm shift. They have shown that:
• Children are not a monolithic group: Their experiences vary vastly based on age, gender, socio-economic background, legal status, and the context of their migration.
• Agency is key: Young migrants actively navigate, negotiate, and make sense of their worlds. They develop strategies for coping, adapting, and belonging.
• Voice matters: Research methodologies must be adapted to genuinely capture children’s perspectives, moving beyond adult interpretations.
• Transnationalism is a lived reality: Many migrant children maintain significant connections to their home countries, influencing their identities and experiences.
  By highlighting these complexities and calling for child-centered approaches, these scholars have inspired a new generation of researchers to explore diverse themes: the impact of migration on education and mental health, the role of young people in integration processes, the challenges of unaccompanied minors, and the ways children use technology to maintain transnational ties.
  Looking Forward: The Ongoing Need to Understand Young Migrants
  The world is witnessing unprecedented levels of human mobility, with millions of children and teenagers on the move, often under challenging circumstances. The pioneering work of Holloway, Knörr, Olwig, and Orellana has laid a critical foundation. Their encouragement to examine the nuanced experiences of young migrants is more relevant than ever.
  Continued research in this vein is not just an academic pursuit; it is essential for developing effective policies and support systems that genuinely meet the needs of migrant children and teenagers, recognize their strengths, and empower them to thrive in their new homes. By listening to their stories and understanding their journeys, we can move beyond seeing them as mere “baggage” and instead recognize them as the individuals they are: resilient, resourceful, and holding unique perspectives on our interconnected world.