Constructing and reconstructing memory and identity among care-experienced young people in Ethiopia

The experiences and outcomes of children who grew up in out-of-home care (such as residential care, foster care, or adoption) are increasingly attracting scholarly attention in both the Global North and the Global South. However, research on leaving care is often atheoretical and descriptive. In addition, in Ethiopia, where this study is rooted, there is concern over the loss of memory and identity among children in care and those leaving care, related particularly to incorrect removal of children and inadequate record keeping. This paper introduces several potentially valuable but underutilised theoretical constructs relevant to care and care-leaving in this context. The study draws particularly on Halbwachs’ collective family memory, as well as the notions of sites of memory, fictive kinship, paper orphanhood, manufactured identities, the politics of data scarcity and identity reconstruction. These constructs centre on individual experiences of identity, memory and family, within broader contexts of manufactured identity and data scarcity. The authors explain how these constructs could provide valuable frameworks for future studies for understanding not only unregulated alternative childcare systems, but also the potential experiences of any child growing up in or leaving care.