“The children are always ours, every single one of them, all over the globe, and I am beginning to suspect that whoever is incapable of recognizing this may be incapable of morality.” – James Baldwin
Our humanity demands responsibility for children and youth as critical developmental stages require us to imagine spaces that reduce vulnerability and encourage agency. The CWS Home Study and Post Release Services (HSPRS) program dares to propose strategies and conceive spaces that reclaim the dignity of children, youth, families and practitioners.
Lina Caswell interviewing Javier Zamora during conference
On October 17th, 2023, the CWS HSPRS program at its first annual conference in Washington, D.C., provided its practitioners the opportunity to meet Javier Zamora, author of Solito, a memoir of his unaccompanied minor journey from El Salvador to the United States. The conversation with Javier on his experience migrating alone as a nine-year-old allowed many of us the courage to reconnect with the migrant child within, often ignored, to ensure that we can do our work with dignity, care and grace.
Javier Zamora speaks with HSPRS staff member, Scarlet Vargas, about their shared experiences
‘Chepito,’ as Javier was lovingly called by his family in El Salvador, was a tangible presence in the room filled with black and brown, first- and second-generation HSPRS practitioners working within the paradox of child protection and immigration enforcement. Although we walk alongside unaccompanied minors, we often seclude the parts of ourselves that connect profoundly with them. Coping by burying memories allowed us to ignore the pain and unprocessed grief that Javier so eloquently unearthed for us. Reading Solito was an act of courage; many in that room felt vulnerable and had to wrestle with forgotten memories and trauma of our families and our migration stories. The pain and grief of many colleagues and allies in the room was palpable. Yet, Javier reminded us of the power of solidarity, care and compassion that it takes for our teams to continue bearing witness, engaging and redefining walking along unaccompanied minors amid our pain. In that room, the story of a child gave us permission to recognize that we are not alone and that by seeing ourselves in others, we can genuinely see the children and youth under our care.
CWS staff members attending HSPRS conference
The history of children’s forced migration to the United States, like Javier’s, cannot be separated from American foreign interventions. Javier did not shy away from highlighting the direct impact that American foreign policy has had on forced child migration around the globe, including on his family. In his book of poems, Unaccompanied, he described the violence, loss and grief caused by those policies to his family during El Salvador’s civil war. Javier asked us to challenge what is being done in our names, to reclaim the power of our citizenship, to engage with that pain, to not look away and to demand an immigration system that recognizes America’s role in the world and the dignity and agency of children and youth. We are practitioners, immigrants, mothers and fathers, reflected in the families we serve. Like Balwin said, we have a moral obligation to claim that every child is ours, especially those who move endlessly around the globe. We are called to contribute our work and expertise in recovering their childhood and securing spaces where they can achieve their full potential.
This week we gathered to commemorate the UNICEF World Children’s Day, highlighting the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990; it is a time for reflection and action to reimagine systems that recognize the dignity and agency of migrant children and youth, as well as the foundational importance of childhood in society. It is also a time to demand that the United States join the rest of the world in ratifying the Convention on the Rights of the Child*.
*CRC in the USA Campaign (hreusa.org) Resource to advocate for U.S. ratification
Lina Caswell is the Associate Director of Children and Youth Services at Church World Service. You can learn more about our work with unaccompanied children by clicking here.