Children and Migration

Millions of children around the world are affected by migration. This includes girls and boys who migrate within and between countries (usually with their families but sometimes on their own), as well as children ‘left behind’ when their parents or caregivers migrate in search of economic opportunities. Be it forced or voluntary, by adults or children, migration affects children’s care situations and can entail risks to their protection.

Children on the move: Like adults, children often migrate in an attempt to build a better life – to escape poverty, discrimination or conflict, and to find education, employment and other opportunities. Others relocate due to an unstable or difficult family environment, such as the loss of a parent, or neglect or abuse from a caregiver. Children may migrate with or without their families, and their movements may be temporary, seasonal or permanent.

While migration can open up new opportunities for children, it can also expose them to harmful care situations, chronic poverty, violence and exploitation. During transit and at their destination, migrant children may end up in unsafe institutions, detention centres, on the streets or in overcrowded, poor-quality accommodation. Others who migrate to join households (e.g. for fostering, education, domestic work or apprenticeships) may be subjected to exploitation. Many migrant children, particularly those without documentation, end up without access to education, protection or basic services, while discrimination and language barriers make it difficult for them to reintegrate into new communities.

Children left behind. An increasing number of children around the world are also adversely affected when migrating parents leave home to seek out employment or economic opportunities (often in urban centres). While children may gain materially from remittances sent home, the absence of a parent may be detrimental to their social and psychological development. In particular, the nature and quality of children’s care relationships may suffer as they adjust to life without a loved caregiver and try to replace a physically and emotionally nurturing relationship with someone new.

Studies from around the world indicate that children left behind by migrating caretakers face education, health and psychosocial problems, including deteriorating academic performance and lower school attendance, greater risk of drug abuse, early pregnancy, involvement in criminal activities and social dysfunction. Left behind children may suffer from low self-esteem and feelings of abandonment, and in the worst cases may be vulnerable to violence, abuse and trafficking. While new or remaining caretakers can offer children a protective and caring environment they may also struggle to care for them without support, and breakdown of these relationships can sometimes result in children’s placement in harmful institutional care.

The documents in this section focus on the impact of migration on children’s care situations, and outline policy, advocacy and programmatic measures to enhance child migrants’ protection.

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Family-Based Mental Health Interventions for Refugees Across the Migration Continuum: A Systematic Review

Mary Bunna, Nicole Zolman, Chloe Polutnik Smith, Deepika Khanna, Rosie Hanneke, Theresa S. Betancourt, Stevan Weine, 09 Sep 2022

This global study reviewed the literature on family-based mental health interventions for refugees across migration contexts and settings to identify types of interventions and intervention components, implementation approaches and to assess effectiveness. The review used a systematic approach, and ten intervention studies were retained for analysis.

Mental Health of Unaccompanied Refugee Minors in Europe: A Systematic Review

Andrea Daniel-Calveras, Nuria Baldaquí, Inmaculada Baeza, 09 Sep 2022

The aim of this systematic review is both to summarize findings regarding the prevalence of mental health disorders among unaccompanied refugee minors (URM) in European countries since the last available systematic review (October 2017), and to describe associated risk factors.

Mental Health of Unaccompanied Refugee Minors in Europe: A Systematic Review

Andrea Daniel-Calveras, Nuria Baldaquí, Inmaculada Baeza, 02 Sep 2022

Child Abuse and Neglect - The International Journal

The Health Status and Related Interventions for Children Left Behind Due to Parental Migration in the Philippines: A Scoping Review

Georgia B. Dominguez, Brian J. Hall, 12 Aug 2022

Overseas Filipino Workers are hailed as modern-day heroes who enable their families to climb the socioeconomic ladder. Despite their financial contribution, labour migration often separates children from their parents during their most formative years of growth, threatening healthy development. Using the Joanna Briggs Institute’s frame-work, this scoping review was conducted to identify the health outcomes of left behind children in the Philippines and health-related interventions.

Making the Family Relationships of the Unaccompanied Youth Visible: An Opportunity to Include a New Actor in Children Care

Chabier Gimeno-Monterde, Karmele Mendoza-Pérez, 08 Aug 2022

The objective of this article is to identify those situations where the families of fostered unaccompanied migrant children are made visible in order to favor the incorporation of these families into the pathway planning. The fieldwork was carried out in Spain and involved working groups with specialized professionals.

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25 Years of Children and Armed Conflict: Taking Action to Protect Children in War

Johan Vigne, Katherine Cocco, Brigid Kennedy Pfister - UNICEF, 28 Jun 2022

This report presents key steps that the international community has taken to protect children in situations of armed conflict, with a specific focus on the Security Council-mandated Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism (MRM) to document grave violations against children and to foster accountability by identifying perpetrators.

The South African Child Gauge 2021/2022: Child and Adolescent Mental Health

The Children's Institute - University of Cape Town, 15 Jun 2022

This sixteenth issue of the South African Child Gauge focuses attention on child and adolescent mental health and how early experiences of adversity ripple out across the life course and generations at great cost to individuals and society. It calls on South African society to put children at the centre of all policies in order to protect children from harm, build their capacity to cope with stress and adversity, and provide them with opportunities to thrive.

Psychological First Aid for Foster Families: Training for Frontline Workers

Catholic Relief Services , 12 Jun 2022

This training has been designed for social workers in Moldova who are working with foster families caring for unaccompanied and separated children and adolescents who have fled the crisis in Ukraine.

Rural–Urban Migration, Family Arrangement, and Children's Welfare: Evidence from China's Rural Areas

Lili Wei, Ying Yang, Jing Zhang, Lijuan Si, 11 Jun 2022

With the rapid economic development in China, large numbers of migrants are moving to metropolitan areas in search of better jobs. They are faced with the dilemma of whether to leave their children behind in the countryside due to various socioeconomic factors. The aim of the study was to analyze the impact of different migration arrangements on child welfare.

Mother's and Father's Migrating in China: Differing Relations to Mental Health and Risk Behaviors Among Left-Behind Children

Hailati Akezhuoli, Jingjing Lu, Guanlan Zhao, Jiayao Xu, Menmen Wang, Feng Wang, Lu Li, Xudong Zhou, 06 Jun 2022

In China, the figure for left-behind children (LBC) of migrants stood at 68. 77 million in 2015. Despite being seen as a whole in the last few decades, LBC today differ broadly in parental migrating status. This study focused on LBC with both parents migrating (BLBC), LBC with only mothers migrating (MLBC), LBC with only fathers migrating (FLBC), and previous LBC with one or both parents migrating (PLBC), separately. The authors explored the extent to which LBC were being affected by each migrant parent on both mental health and risk behaviors.