Child Migration in the US and Spain: Towards a Global Border Regime?
| Published date | 01 December 2020 |
| Author | Luna Vives |
| Date | 01 December 2020 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12704 |
Child Migration in the US and Spain:
Towards a Global Border Regime?
Luna Vives*
ABSTRACT
In The New Politics of Immigration, Professor Catherine Dauvergne proposes that as migration
policies converge at the global level, the traditional difference between settler societies and
former European colonies is becoming irrelevant. To test this argument, this article addresses
the impact of externalization, militarization, detention and deportation on unaccompanied
migrant children along the southern Spanish and US borders. I conclude that the combined
used of these strategies is designed to keep all unwanted migrants away from the physical bor-
der of the state, regardless of their background, and prevents children from accessing specific
protections. Current border policy in these two countries shows the primacy of national secu-
rity concerns over human rights and supports Dauvergne’s argument that distinctions between
former colonies and settler societies are disappearing. The evidence considered here points
towards an increasingly restrictive and punitive global border regime, but one with regional
variations.
INTRODUCTION
The border is at the centre of contemporary efforts to stop the movement of spontaneous (and
unwanted) human mobility. Reluctant states of reception have created a hostile border architec-
ture to stop the arrival of the “less deserving”–particularly spontaneous migrants from poorer
nations with racialized backgrounds. The four pillars of this hostile architecture are the con-
struction of new (and reinforcement of existing) militarized border walls and fences worldwide,
which includes unprecedented investment in border technology (Vallet, 2013, 2017; Topak and
Vives, 2018); externalization of border control responsibilities to countries of origin and transit
of international migration (Casas‐Cortés et al., 2014; Loyd and Mountz, 2018); increasing
importance of deportation (Gibney, 2008; Hiemstra, 2019); and the unprecedented reliance on
migrant detention (González Sánchez, 2016; Hiemstra, 2019). Countries across the Global North
have justified these measures on the basis of national security and the fight against global ter-
rorism. The emergence of a common way of conceiving the role of the border for the purposes
of migration control calls into question traditional distinctions between settler states (i.e., the
USA) and former colonial states (i.e., Great Britain) in migration scholarship, leading observers
to point to the development of a global border regime (Dauvergne, 2016; Jones, 2016; Maillet
et al., 2018).
* Universitéde Montréal, Montréal
The peer review history for this article is available at https://publons.com/publon/10.1111/imig.12704
doi: 10.1111/imig.12704
©2020 The Author
International Migration ©2020 IOM
International Migration Vol. 58 (6) 2020
ISSN 0020-7985Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
This new border has a distinct impact on unaccompanied and separated migrant children (hence-
forth “unaccompanied migrant children”or “migrant children”). The securitization and criminaliza-
tion of spontaneous international migration has led to an increasing tension between international
human rights instruments such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and national
legislations (which tend to reflect international commitments) on the one hand; and national migra-
tion law and its actual implementation, on the other. Punitive migration policies at the border are
increasingly at odds with states’international, regional, and domestic legal obligations and commit-
ments to shelter and protect these minors (Bhabha, 2014a, 2014b).
In this article I focus on the migration of unaccompanied minors to test the limits of the global
border argument and evaluate the impact initiatives to realize it have on them. The discussion com-
pares two places that are emblematic of a novel way of implementing restrictive border policies:
Spain and the US. This comparison allows me to test Dauvergne’s argument that the new politics
of immigration have moved beyond traditional distinctions between former European colonial states
(e.g. France, Germany, or Spain) and settler states (e.g. Canada, the USA, and Australia). The the-
matic focus on migrant children, meanwhile, highlights the impact of this tension between national
security concerns and the protection of migrants at risk, and engages with Dauvergne’s assertion
that we are moving towards a new global approach to international migration defined by its “nasti-
ness”towards (racialized) migrants.
The discussion starts with a brief introduction to the concept of unaccompanied migrant children
and an overview of their participation in spontaneous migrations along the southern US and the
Spanish‐EU borders. In the next two sections I focus on particularly “nasty”defensive border poli-
cies that target spontaneous migration in these two locales and their impact on child migration:
externalization, militarization, detention, and deportation. This discussion uses secondary sources
such as scientific papers, policy documents, government and NGO reports and media coverage of
relevant events. In the conclusions, I reflect on the overall impact of these measures on the protec-
tion of migrant children’s rights, and on how attention to regional variations of this Global border
regime adds nuance to the convergence argument without invalidating it.
UNACCOMPANIED AND SEPARATED MIGRANT CHILDREN IN SPAIN AND THE
US
Unaccompanied and separated migrant children are minors, under the age of 18, who are outside
their country of origin and have been separated from both parents and any other relatives and
adults who, by law or custom, are responsible for their care (Committee on the Rights of the Child,
General Comment no. 6, 2005, articles 7 and 8). This is a heterogeneous category. Some children
are alone, while others may be travelling with other children or adults; some are asylum seekers or
refugees, while others aspire to work and financially support their families by working in destina-
tion countries; they may travel on their own accord or be victims of human trafficking; some
migrate without their parents, while others are separated along the way; they can be infants, tod-
dlers, young children, or adolescents nearing adulthood.
Despite these differences, all unaccompanied migrant children are considered at risk of violence
and exploitation and are accorded specific protections under a broad range of international and
regional instruments. Globally, the CRC (1990) provides the most comprehensive and targeted pro-
tection for foreign‐born children (Arts. 1 and 22). The CRC is the most widely ratified human
rights treaty in history. Both the USA and Spain are signatories of the CRC, although the USA is
yet to ratify it. The two countries are also signatories of other treaties that specifically address the
rights of migrant children, such as the 1951 Geneva Convention Relative to the Status of Refugees
and the 1967 Protocol and the 1949 Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian
30 VIVES
©2020 The Author. International Migration ©2020 IOM
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