Materiality and Memory: Understanding the Clandestine Movement of Child Migrants along the U.S.-Mexico Border

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Undocumented Migration Project (UMP) is a long-term anthropological analysis of clandestine border crossings between Northern Mexico and Southern Arizona that began in 2009. The UMP uses a combination of ethnographic and archaeological approaches to understand the distinct experiences of migrant subpopulations. This study focuses on child migrants and how they are represented through public discourse and the archaeological record. Lab analyses were conducted on the artifacts that the UMP has collected to examine how child migration is represented in the archaeological record. Archival research was utilized to investigate statistics related to child migration and the ways in which the subject is discussed in popular media and policy reports. Additionally, interviews were conducted with undocumented youth regarding their immigration experience. The statistics indicate that tens of thousands of children are migrating, however, the minute amount of archaeological evidence does not correlate. This research project aims to demonstrate the relationship between the materiality of migrant children and their narratives and memories in order to make these lived experiences visible. Little work has been conducted on understanding child migrants, therefore this study sets out to shed light on their experiences and the ways in which we think about children migrating across borders.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25243