Coming of Age in Madrid: An Oral History of Unaccompanied Moroccan Migrant Minors by Susan Plann (review)

Coming of Age in Madrid is a longitudinal study of twenty-seven young Moroccans who immigrated to Madrid as unaccompanied minors (known in Spain as MENAS, the Spanish acronym for unaccompanied foreign minors). As children and adolescents, they spent a critical period of their lives in the Spanish child-care system. As young adults, some continue to live in Spain, while others have been deported to their country of origin, Morocco. The importance of this work is not only for Spain but also for other countries contending with the growing numbers of unaccompanied minors on their borders. As befits its subject matter, this is a complex investigative work that weaves together linguistic and intercultural knowledge. With sensitive observation of her narrators' semantic and pragmatic nuances and modulation of voice and tone, Susan Plann captures their stories in their own words, oral histories that relate the transformation/assimilation, integration, and acculturation of identity of MENAS in the Community of Madrid. The author, a researcher and professor emerita at the University of California at Los Angeles, focuses on the spoken words and problematics of The Other to distinguish between the individual voice and the collective voice of belonging of this cohort. Her book differs in this respect from existing studies of migration in general in Spain because the subject of MENAS has rarely been investigated from within due to the difficulties of accessing these youth. For this reason, the narrators, who arrived in Spain before their personalities were completely formed, step forth on the 344 pages of this book to lift the curtain on the prejudice, discrimination, and even abuse they suffer, not only in Spain but also, unfortunately, in Morocco, their country of origin.

Susan Plann has gained access to the twenty-seven narrators, listening to their stories and meeting directly with this silenced Other to conduct interviews over an impressive period of six years. In both Madrid and Tangier the author gained the narrators' confidence, allowing them to speak openly and honestly about their histories, which take the form of personal stories that she has patiently transcribed and translated, presenting to the English-speaking reader what must be considered a true and authentic oral history. Another merit of this work is its lengthy examination of the experiential and mental changes that narrators undergo, together with the analysis of their testimonies. This achievement will undoubtedly deepen contemporary understanding of youth migration and its transnational implications. All of this makes this book a significant contribution to transnational migration and transcultural studies.

The assiduous, thoughtful reading of Coming of Age in Madrid leads to an inescapable conclusion: MENAS are not the problem but rather the consequence of other problems, such as the inadequate migration policies of the Euro-Mediterranean region, and the failure of development projects and job creation in the region's developing nations. Systems of inequality at both national and regional levels oblige migrants to undertake an arduous cross-continental journey at an early age, underscoring even more their sense of injustice and their inevitable unrest before both the homeland and the receiving country, which is even greater if they are deported. This responds, albeit only partially, to one of the author's questions: What happens to unaccompanied migrant minors when they come of age?

Thus, seen through a sociological and political lens, the discourse configured by the narrators' stories reveals the political and economic conditions that have shaped their experiences. Seen through an anthropological lens, a focus here as well, the book provides data for future research on cultural questions and relationships and their various intersections (of The I and The Other, but also of The Others among themselves). Also included in this work is an abundance of data on an identity situated between...