Mapping Emotions, Building Belonging: How Children with Different Immigration Backgrounds Experience and Picture Their Parisian and Berliner Neighbourhoods

Abstract

Recent migration and mobility studies have emphasized the diversity of migrants' experiences. This paper compares experiences of children with different types of immigration backgrounds: first-generation immigrants who have recently arrived to Paris or Berlin; second-generation immigrants, and finally, children coming from expatriate, transnational families. On the whole, 12 school classes from 8 city areas took part in the study. Children's perception and representation of their neighbourhoods was explored with the help of subjective maps, which they marked with specially designed "emoticons". The paper argues that the interplay of different immigration backgrounds with the phenomenon of residential and educational segregation can actually produce a variety of children's emotional geographies. Emotional attitudes to particular parts of the city area where children lead their everyday lives create a very "local" sense of belonging. At the same time, children's maps and commentaries also reflect multiple identifications, such as with their country of origin.

Keywords: first and second-generation migrant children, subjective maps, segregation, activity, belonging