Abstract
This article examines the subjective experience of children and adolescents as sons and daughters of people who migrated to Spain during the first neoliberal wave that hit Ecuador. We present analyzes of each moment that structures this migration process, based on testimonies from both children and adolescents in their place of birth, and from those that emigrated with their parents. During our research, conducted between 2006 and 2007, these children and adolescents had memories of family separation and reunion, the reasons why their parents left, and their destinations. Mostly born between 1992–1995 when neoliberal policies were being implemented most aggressively, these children also experienced the first actions of a progressive government cycle. The government of the time, through the Buen Vivir (Good Living) Constitution, took a special interest in migratory protection policies, seeking to safeguard the physical and social wellbeing of migrants, the second largest source of income in Ecuador between 1999 and 2009.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Studies in Childhood and Youth |
Publisher | Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. |
Pages | 205-229 |
Number of pages | 25 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2021 |
Publication series
Name | Studies in Childhood and Youth |
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ISSN (Print) | 2731-6467 |
ISSN (Electronic) | 2731-6475 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The numbers available in the official records of national institutions show that, between 1999 and 2002, the period of greatest migratory peaks in the history of Ecuador, nearly 600,000 people left the country, representing approximately 5% of the total population (INEC, 2015). The 1999 financial crisis which followed the bank holiday, and the dollarization of the economy decreed in 2000 by Mahuad’s government constituted the main causes of the “migratory stampede” (Ramírez Gallegos & Ramírez, 2005) of that period. These events were a consequence of the deregulation of the financial market supported by the legal framework established in 1994 during the government of Durán Ballén through the Financial Institutions Law.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.