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Remembering Child Migration: Faith, Nation-Building and the Wounds of Charity

Lynch, Gordon (2015) Remembering Child Migration: Faith, Nation-Building and the Wounds of Charity. Bloomsbury Academic, 192 pp. ISBN 978-1-4725-9117-3. (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:63853)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/remembering-child-mi...

Abstract

Between 1850 and 1970, around three hundred thousand children were sent to new homes through child migration programmes run by churches, charities and religious orders in the United States and the United Kingdom. Intended as humanitarian initiatives to save children from social and moral harm and to build them up as national and imperial citizens, these schemes have in many cases since become the focus of public censure, apology and sometimes financial redress.

Remembering Child Migration is the first book to examine both the American 'orphan train' programmes and Britain's child migration schemes to its imperial colonies. Setting their work in historical context, it discusses their assumptions, methods and effects on the lives of those they claimed to help. Rather than seeing them as reflecting conventional child-care practice of their time, the book demonstrates that they were subject to criticism for much of the period in which they operated. Noting similarities between the American 'orphan trains' and early British migration schemes to Canada, it also shows how later British child migration schemes to Australia constituted a reversal of what had been understood to be good practice in the late Victorian period.

At its heart, the book considers how welfare interventions motivated by humanitarian piety came to have such harmful effects in the lives of many child migrants. By examining how strong moral motivations can deflect critical reflection, legitimise power and build unwarranted bonds of trust, it explores the promise and risks of humanitarian sentiment.

Item Type: Book
Uncontrolled keywords: Religious Studies
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion
B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BL Religion
H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Arts and Humanities > School of Culture and Languages
Depositing User: Gordon Lynch
Date Deposited: 05 Oct 2017 10:53 UTC
Last Modified: 17 Aug 2022 11:01 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/63853 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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