Transnationalism of ostracism: Moroccan migrant minors and procedures of illegalization

Nuria Empez, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Mercedes Jiménez, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Francesco Vacchiano, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

Migration and family formation are main topics studied by demographers and anthropologists. As the means to migrate legally or obtain legal status in the EU close, we observe the emergence of the unaccompanied minors. Adolescents have become a new and deviant form of transnational movement of minors, which look for insertion occasions (in any way) in different countries or regions. The special status of minors gives them an ambivalent status. On one hand they are minors, subjects to protect, and on the other hand they are irregular migrants to control. These adolescents form a new migratory subject within the international transnational migration panorama. In this paper we analyse transnational adolescent migration from Morocco to Spain and Italy.