The 4th ADBI-OECD-ILO Roundtable on Labor Migration in Asia: Building Human

Capital Across Borders Tokyo 27-28 Jan 2014

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:

lack of parental care produces a potentially adverse health or education

effect,
remittances can compensate for maternal absenteeism due their positive

contribution to the household income and to the households potential to

provide better services.
access and p

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).

The effect of remittances on schooling may vary with the

educational level of migrating parents. Results from Latin
America shows that migrations positive effect on school attendance
is usually limited to children with parents with a low level of
education

Positive effects on Education

Reduce drop out: because remittances relieve some of
the pressure on household budgets, families can afford to
have their children spend more time in school.
Higher demand for institutionalized child care in families
where one of the parents is migrating
Children in left behind households have a
higher probability of attending private schools
Extra income a household gains from remittances may
allow children to delay entering the workforce in order to
further their studies, increasing the final level of education.
.

Negative effects on Education

Parental migration can have negative impact on
education if it increases the migration decision of
young males or increases the need for young females to
engage in housework ().()
Remittances lead to changes on consumption patterns,
reduce labour supply, and increase need for additional
remittances
itt
iin th
the ffuture.
t
().
The reduction in the number of adult role models in the
home may increase the child
home,
child-rearing
rearing responsibilities
of resident household members, placing greater
demands on older children to assist in running and
s pporting the ho
supporting
household
sehold ()

Economic activity (child labour)

A result of impact of education
Remittances may replace the income obtained from
child work, thereby reducing the need for economic
activity of children regardless of the effect on return of
education ().
Migration of an adult member and the transfer of
remittances do not directlyy influence their p
productivity.
y
Therefore, expected and predominant income effects of
remittances can potentially contribute to reducing the
incidence of child work.
work

Economic activity (child labour)

within the household:
the migration of an adult member may produce two
distinct direct effects on the household demand for
child work:
it increases the marginal productivity of the
child,
c
d, who
o is
s required
equ ed to
o subs
substitute
u e for
o the
e
foregone adult labour;
productivityy of child work if the
can influence the p
remittances are used to finance productive
investments, such as the purchase of land or of
productive equipment

Economic activity (child labour)

Increase in remittances received has two effects:
it lowers the amount of time children devote to
wage employment outside the household,
it increases the time children work and receive
a wage within family-run economic activities.
On balance, the effects of remittances are positive,
as this latter increase (of time spent within family
familyrun economic activities) is smaller than the
reduction in the time worked outside the
household. (Yang)

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

Remittances can compensate for maternal

absenteeism
b
t i
d their
due
th i positive
iti contribution
t ib ti to
t the
th
household income and to the households potential
to access and provide better health, education, and
work opportunities

Gender and Remittances

intra-household distributional issues
The income and livelihood effects on
household members left behind depend on:
The level of income that migrants earn
The extent to which they can and do send
remittances back
How they are used in the household
(Gender and preferences in the use of remittances)

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

Impact: control group

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

Source: Rossi, A. The Impact

p of Migration
g
on Children Left Behind in Developing
p g Countries: outcomes analysis
y and
data requirements, Harvard Carr Center for Human Rights Policy WP, 2008

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