ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to contribute both to ongoing deconstructions of hegemonic notions of migration and to the broader agenda of placing children at the centre of research on child migration. It highlights the heterogeneity of child migration, problematising the simplistic host-newcomer dualisms which tend to dominate the ways in which child migration are frequently perceived. The chapter explores the aspects of the social worlds of children who have participated in the return migration phenomenon to one European society. It draws on research conducted as part of the Migrant Children project, which aimed to contribute to understandings of the experiences of children and young people who moved to Ireland with their return migrant parent(s) during the economic boom of the late 1990s and 2000s. The focus on social and cultural capital in this research highlights the structural context of child migration without denying children's agency. Irish citizenship is understood in relation to ethnicity and as available to members of the diaspora.
