Page 28 - IJSA, Vol. 2, No 1-2, 2019

рrint ISSN: 2617-2682; DOI:10.26697/ijsa IJSA

Introduction The aim of the study. To reflect the experiences of
Why should child migration be analyzed immigrant children and their changing relationship with
phenomenologically? There will be no surprise if I say things in phenomenological methodology approach.
that migration itself is a very complicated life event for
a person: you have to leave your country, your friends, Materials and Methods
even your culture, everything you know, and then move For the current study, data were collected using several
yourself and belongings to a place which is strange and methods. The main method was the unstructured
alien. For grown-ups, such a move might be decided by phenomenological interview with 17 children and adults
the promise of improved living conditions, economic who have or used to have the experience as a child of
and social benefits. But for a child, such decisions are leaving their home country and coming to live in another
often made without them, or without an understanding one together with their parents (or care-givers, however
of such adult concerns. At the same time children in this research there were no such participants) legally
experiences of migration, perhaps due to their status as and voluntarily. Changing of a country means that they
dependents, may be underestimated, and thus they may had also to change schools. Various additional data on
be left alone with it. Grynberg’s (2012) dissertation, children’s migrating were collected from the published
Disjunctions and Contradictions: An Exploration of My material including autobiographies, publicly available
Childhood Migration Experience through Visual Art, online sources, essays written specially for the current
provides a powerful example of how some may the investigation, and phenomenological literature. The
minimize the meaning of migration for a child. article presents only a small part of the research results;
All around us is the tinkle of china and the reassuring they reflect the migrant child’s experiences when facing
murmur of people politely conversing. I turn around to new things in a new country and a school upon arrival at
look at the man I’ve been seated next to at this a new country. The data were analyzed following van
conference dinner. We acknowledge each other with a Manen’s (2014) recommendations. The data collection
smile, and anxiously wonder how to begin the focused on concrete lived experience descriptions of
conversation. migrant children, referring to which the anecdotes were
“Hello, my name is Jonathan.” written, in order to recreate the lived experiences of
“Pleased to meet you, I’m Carmella, I respond.” migrant children, but now in a “transcended form” (van
I watch as his eyes register this information: “That’s an Manen, 2014, p. 250).
unusual name. Are you from an Italian background?”
“No, actually Carmella is also an Israeli name, I was Results and Discussion
born there.” Things and Migration
A small frown now appears between his eyes as his gaze A person is closely related to the things that surround
moves somewhat furtively over my hair, clothes and him or her. Merleau-Ponty (2004) shows that people are
jewelry. honeyed together with things. Such bonding denotes the
“Really! I never would have picked you as a migrant, relationship between the object and us and reveals that
you don’t even have a hint of a foreign accent.” we are surrounded by things or forced to treat and see
I smile, and think that he is too polite to add, “and you them only in a certain way. A thing has a certain
don’t look like you come from anywhere else.” peculiarity to allure, to attract, or to stimulate interest of
I decide to offer some more information: “Well, I arrived those standing before it. The things of our world are not
in Melbourne when I was eight years old.” simply neutral objects that are in front of us or that are
“Oh,” he sighs, the furrows between his eyes softening, designed to fill our field of vision. Each of them
“then you are not a real migrant, you were just a child.” symbolizes or imposes a certain way of being or doing,
(Grynberg, 2012, p. 1). and provoking reactions that may be positive, negative,
Jonathan discounts Carmella’s migrant experience as or otherwise. People’s tastes, lifestyle, attitudes, and the
less than real, since she was but a child when she moved. world are reflected in the things that are chosen to
So while the adult experience of migration may be surround him.
recognized as an event of significance and thus worthy Our relationship with things is not distant: each thing
of attention, the uniqueness of the same event for a child affects our bodies and the way we live (Merleau-Ponty,
may be overlooked. Indeed, despite the abundance of 2004). As van den Berg (1972, p. 32) declares, “who
research on migration, child migration has been given wants to become acquainted with man, should listen to
little analysis from a pedagogical perspective. Where it the language spoken by the things in his experience”. In
has been investigated, some researchers have turned to other words, a person does not live on an empty planet,
hermeneutic phenomenology to provide insight to this but is always around things, and these things show up
often memorable event for a child. Topics have differently depending on who that person is, where he
included: longing for home (Winning, 1990), speaking lives, what he likes and prefers. Heidegger also presents
of home (Winning, 1991), physical self-awareness of a the idea of the significance of a thing in human’s life.
child-migrant (Kirova & Emme, 2008), the child’s According to Heidegger (1971), “being human is
perception of home when away from home (Dachyshyn, dwelling, that is, staying with and among things”
2013), the experience of studying in a foreign language (p. 157). The life of a human being is not possible
(Lee, 2005), and what home is when we have left it without things. Following this idea, a human is always
(Norris, 1990). surrounded by things that create his or her life or things
are “chosen” according to one’s life.

27