‘Anchor babies’ and ‘imposter children’: childhoods’ representations in global migration politics

Children migrate alone, creating tension between a child rights approach and global migration governance. States cannot deny children’s rights because it would be an immoral violation of international law, yet states adopt different strategies to control child migration. This chapter briefly discusses two such strategies: using different representations of children like ‘anchor children and babies’ as a migration strategy to restrict children’s rights, and employing the ‘imposter children’ category to recognize agency as an adulthood characteristic. Both strategies draw from a discourse of protection from harm and children’s rights to restrict their rights to asylum, family reunification, recognition as a child, and their best interests. This chapter illustrates these strategies, considering how politicians and the media dealt with recent migration situations, mostly in Global North countries. These critical reflections contribute to understanding how states strategically employ specific representations of children in migration and border control.