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The Impact of
Migration on Children
Left Behind
The views expressed in this presentation are the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of
the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), its Board of Directors, or the
governments they represent. ADBI does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this paper and accepts no
responsibility for any consequences of their use. Terminology used may not necessarily be consistent with ADB official
terms.
Andrea
A
d
R
Rossi
i
Regional Adviser Social Policy
UNICEF Regional Office for South Asia
Left Behind
Living in a family with at least one parent away
for long periods is part of the normal
experience
p
of childhood for many
y children in
the developing world.
South Africa: 25% of all households have members who are migrant
workers, but this proportion rises to over 40% of households in deep rural
areas (SAMP 2004).
Bangladesh: between 18 and 40% of rural households have at least one
migrant member living and working elsewhere (Afsar 2003).
Tanzania: that between 50-60% of people living in rural households have at
least one member away,
away while the figure for rural Mali was 80% (Tacoli
2002).
Composite
p
effect
For adults, equating peoples standard of living with
income and consumption levels.
levels Not for
children. Need to look at intra-household
distributional issues , and children well being
g
Well- being outcome is the result of two different
components, one positive and one negative.
For example:
Health
Positive contribution of migration to infant
mortality reduction
Children in households with migrant
members
b
are less
l
lik l to
likely
t be
b underweight
d
i ht
Mexico a 1 percent increase in the share of
recipient households reduces the infant
mortality rate by 1.2 per thousand
Positive effects of remittances are confined to the
households in the poorest quintile of the income
distribution
Social Remittances
(Levitt 1998)
Household
H
h ld income
i
d
does
nott presentt a significant
i ifi
t
effect on low birth weight, whereas receiving
remittances always has a significant effect,
effect reducing
low birth weight
Migrant members of the household bring back not
only financial remittances but also new information,
and values that may have a positive effect on
children. This positive effect depends, however, on
th possibility
the
ibilit off existing
i ti means off contact
t t between
b t
migrants and the household
Education
The effect of migration on school grades
completed
p
will be equal
q
to the sum of:
the impact of external migration on a childs
educational attainment through
g its impact
p
on
family income (expected to be positive)
and the impact of external migration on a childs
education attainment through its impact on
family structure (expected to be negative).
Psycho Social
The social cost of migration
g
can be veryy high,
g ,
particularly due to the lack of parental care.
Exacerbated if long term migration of one of the
parents may lead to permanent disruption of family
unity
No q
quantitative research
No evident impact on well being indicators
Impact
Non income
POSITIVE
Social remittances
Agency
EGATIVE
Impact on
family structure
income
Impact on
family income
Consumption ch
marginal produ anges
of the child
ctivity
Children at
destination
Migrant
Children
Children at
origin
Left behind
Endogenenity
Migrant and non migrant household are not
similar and remittances are not a randomly
g
transfer
assigned
External event may have a direct impact on
children well being and at the same time
g
or
determine the decision of migration
increase the level of remittances sent by
migrating parents
Solution: instrumental variable approach and propensity score matching,
panel data
conclusion
Although children adolescents are most affected by the
impact of migration, they are absent from the migration and
remittances debate.
There is an urgent need to increase awareness of
children and young people
peopless rights and to include their
voices
Need of reliable data and robust analysis
Effects of migration and remittances depend on the social,
cultural, political and economic context which will have to be
taken into account to minimize social costs and maximize
social benefits
Remittances by themselves cannot guarantee the realization
of the right to quality education and health care, nor surmount
gender discrimination
Remittances should not replace public social investments
Andrea Rossi
R i
Regional
l Adviser
Ad i
S i l Policy
Social
P li
UNICEF Regional Office for South Asia
K thm nd Nepal
Kathmandu,
Nep l
arossi@unicef org
arossi@unicef.org