“You Are Safe Now”: Migrant Youth Constructions of Safety and Schooling in the U.S.

Drawing on multisited ethnographic research with migrant families from Brazil, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras who were detained, separated, or endured prolonged transit due to US immigration policies, we articulate how ideas of “relational safety” are situated in relationships with people, place, and time. Contrasting abundant literature preoccupied with physical and structural violence that migrants suffer, we consider what we learn by listening to young people construct experiences around the ideals of safety, rather than the prevalence of violence.