Children Left Behind: The Impact of Labor Migration

Posted by Belarmino Dabalos Saguing                                                            Rome, Italy 29 Jan 2015

From Article by Migration Policy Institute                                                       Children Left Behind: The Impact of Labor Migration in Moldova and Ukraine

When migrants leave to find work abroad, they often seek to improve the well-being of their family and provide better opportunities for their children over the long run. While migration may assist in achieving financial stability, research shows that the absence of a parent can be detrimental to a child’s social and psychological development.

Children left behind are a vulnerable category unlike any other and deserve policy-specific attention. No part of the world remains untouched by the phenomenon of labor migration and its effects, and countries of the former Soviet Union (USSR) are no exception.

This article focuses on the impact of labor migration on children left behind, examining this phenomenon through a lens of economic, social, and gendered implications. The findings are discussed in the context of two countries of the former USSR: Moldova and Ukraine. Though the two states have taken different paths since gaining independence, they are united by their Soviet pasts and recent migration trends and policies. It is unknown how labor migration patterns and their impact on children will be affected by the current chaotic political situation in Ukraine.

In Moldova, 100,000 children have been left behind by migrant parents; the country has become reliant on remittances, which equal nearly US$2 billion, almost one-quarter of gross domestic product (GDP), according to 2014 World Bank estimates. Ukrainian migrants, who left 200,000 children behind, sent home an estimated US$9 billion in remittances in 2014, the largest amount in the region, representing 5.4 percent of GDP. The scale of migration and the impact of remittances on domestic economies have prompted the governments of Moldova and Ukraine to partner with European Union (EU) Member States and international organizations to develop policies addressing the welfare of migrants and those left behind.

The Impact of Labor Migration on Children Left Behind

The most important and timely question raised by scholars Ernesto Castañeda and Lesley Buck in the debate on labor migration and children left behind addresses the issue of who is actually raising the children of the developing world. Migration uproots a family’s stability and, as a result of separation, reduced care and resources may negatively impact the social and psychological development of left-behind children.

 Studies of the effects of migration on the well-being of children left behind generally find that children are negatively impacted emotionally. It is extremely difficult, however, to accurately assess the emotional state of left-behind children because most studies do not include their emotional state prior to the departure of a parent, nor is it possible to measure what the emotional state might have been in the absence of migration. Each child reacts differently; it is not enough to simply compare a child with migrant parents to one without. More factors must be taken into account before clear parallels may be drawn.

Adverse Effects on Children

Left-behind children face numerous adverse effects of parental migration including problems related to school, such as deteriorating academic performance, declining attendance, and a lack of motivation. In Moldova, 22 percent of migrants’ children do not attend school. Health concerns may arise, including drug use and undermined or deteriorating health, as children with migrant parents may not solicit help when needed. Family stability and future development are also at stake. Divorce is common among Moldovan migrants. Children left behind lack job opportunities and may develop psycho-emotional problems often associated with an inferiority complex. This can lead to youth unemployment and juvenile delinquency, with high rates of each in Moldova and Ukraine. Left-behind children are also vulnerable to human trafficking and labor exploitation.

Care Deficit

The development of a physically and emotionally nurturing relationship between children left behind and their remaining or new caregivers is a common challenge. Evidence shows that girls are twice as likely as boys to have a stronger bond with their new caregivers. In Moldova, research suggests that if the father migrates and the mother remains as the caregiver, the child’s relationship with the caregiver is not significantly affected. Conversely, when a mother migrates, only a small percentage of men become the primary caregiver; more commonly, the job falls to a grandparent. Thus, a mother’s departure is arguably more detrimental to a child’s development than a father’s migration. In the case of both parents migrating and the child being left in the care of relatives or friends, the distance between child and caregiver is even more significant.

Financial Implications

A lively debate exists over the benefits to children of parental labor migration. Many experts, although not all, claim the financial benefits that result from migration outweigh the social and psychological trauma caused by a parent’s absence. Remittances can improve a family’s situation, providing a larger income than available in Ukraine or Moldova, which migrant households typically use towards buying food and clothing, home-improvement projects, better health services, and education for their children. At the same time, remittances may contribute to economic inequalities within the origin community, creating a financial rift in the quality of care and opportunities for children in remittance-receiving households and those in households that are not dependent on such support.

In some cases, remittances may be insufficient to support the needs of transnational families, as providing for two households—the left-behind relatives and those who migrated—leaves fewer opportunities to improve financial status. For some, remittances are used to cover basic everyday costs, leaving little money for home reconstruction or occasional luxuries and even less for investing in a child’s education and future.

The positive impact of remittances on migrants’ households in Moldova and Ukraine cannot be overlooked, as remittances have helped alleviate poverty for many transnational families. Remittances can have a positive impact on school attendance, as well as health care. At the same time, they should not be regarded as a panacea for all the problems migrant households face. They are neither an instant nor a steady flow of income. In the short run, financing migration is expensive, with the initial departure resulting in significant costs, and returns not coming in until later. Many families find themselves in a worse financial situation, as remittances may be used to pay off debts.

While remittances represent a significant source of income for many Moldovan families, research often disregards the fact that remittance-receiving families with children have debts that are five times higher than those of receiving households without children. In more than half of Moldovan migrant households with children under the age of 18, remittances comprised 50 percent of the family budget, a 2008 United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) study found.  

Remittances create a certain dependency. Once a family makes the decision to become economically transnational, it is difficult and undesirable to return to a life without such receipts. Remittances may also have a negative impact on the receiving-country economy. With high levels of remittances, the Moldovan and Ukrainian governments have been reluctant to invest in public services such as schools and hospitals, assuming that those receiving remittances will use private services.

Gendered Implications and the Feminization of Migration

Women comprise 48 percent of the international migrant stock worldwide, and as high as 70 percent in some countries. Many studies have found that maternal migration, which is growing, has a stronger negative impact on children left behind. However, women have generally been found to be more responsible migrants—remitting a larger portion of their earnings, keeping in touch more frequently, and staying loyal to their partners and families.

Certain trends in the feminization of migration and rise in children left behind transcend national borders. This has led to the development of globally accepted policies on left-behind children, including bilateral discussions between states to establish comprehensive policies benefitting both sending and receiving communities. The growing number of children left behind amid the feminization of migration sets the stage for targeted in-country policies for monitoring and assisting transnational families, with a particular focus on migrant mothers and their left-behind children.