Bellagio 2008 workshop on Migrant Youth and Children

First, the recommendation for a child-centric perspective is very much in harmony with calls from these literatures which widely exhort – as did both AR and H-K – for careful attention to the perspectives of the children and youth themselves. This attention to their perspectives can be viewed as a matter of theory/philosophy of science to the extent that it endorses the subjective perception of individuals as valid data to be considered. Such an acknowledgement of the value of a subjective perspective is particularly important for adolescents (as compared to younger children) given the developing sophistication of cognitive abilities during this period of development, as in enhanced ability for self-reflection and perspective taking. Those who have spent much time genuinely soliciting youth perspectives would strongly endorse this approach as well, given how apparent it is how much youth wish to express themselves, how capable they are in doing so, and because often they are the best source of identifying the essential elements of their experience – the very elements we researchers wish to identify and assess.