Children of empire

This article takes as its starting point the phenomenon of child migration to Britain's White Dominions in the 1940s and 1950s to explore the ways in which the social was being governed in the immediate post-war years. Through this contested form of child welfare, it illustrates the deeply rooted, symbolic meanings and values attached to empire and religion and the role that these played in mediating the power and control of the state over its citizens in post-war British society. The article moves on to consider the power relations at play in the claims making activities of former child migrants in the 1980s and 1990s and, in turn, examines how these have come to haunt not only contemporary social policy but also more popular accounts of welfare and family life. Overall it argues that the spatial and temporal contexts in which knowledge about welfare subjects and phenomena is produced offer rich insights into the complexities of the past and their shaping of the present.