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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Parental absence: Intergenerational tensions and contestations of social grants in South Africa

Mokoene Ziphora Kearabetswe & Khunou Grace - Critical Social Policy, 26 Aug 2019

Through a thematic content analysis of qualitative interviews with members of migrants’ families, this article illustrates that in the context of internal labour migration, family responsibilities shift in ways that make unemployed grandmothers in South Africa who do not receive the Old Age Grant vulnerable.

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Report of the UN Secretary-General on the Human Rights of Migrants

UN Secretary-General, 02 Aug 2019

The present comprehensive report from the UN Secretary-General covers all aspects of the implementation of the Resolution on the Protection of Migrants. The report recognizes that immigration detention "is not in the best interests of the child and is a child rights violation" and notes the need to protect and assist migrants in vulnerable situations, including children.

Ley Marco Regional en Materia de Migraciones con Enfoque en Derechos Humanos

Foro de Presidentes y Presidentas de Poderes Legislativos de Centroamérica y la Cuenca del Caribe (FOPREL), 01 Aug 2019

El objeto que tiene la «Ley Marco Regional» es crear un marco jurídico y rector que contribuya a una migración segura, ordenada y regular, basada en el respeto, garantía y realización efectiva de los derechos humanos de las personas migrantes en todas las fases del proceso migratorio en el contexto de la migración, con especial atención a poblaciones en condiciones de vulnerabilidad, en la región de Centroamérica, la Cuenca del Caribe y México.

2019 Annual report of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children

Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children , 30 Jul 2019

This report of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children highlights action taken at national and regional levels towards realizing the right of every child to protection from violence.

Supporting unaccompanied asylum‐seeking young people: The experience of foster care

Jim Wade - Child & Family Social Work, 30 Jul 2019

This paper [from the Child & Family Social Work special issue on teenagers in foster care] reports findings from the first UK study into the experiences of unaccompanied asylum‐seeking young people in the UK, describing issues arising from initial assessment and preparation for fostering and the ways in which young people and foster carers adjusted to their lives together.

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The Ethical and Public Health Implications of Family Separation

Mia Stange, Brett Stark - The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 12 Jul 2019

This paper reviews and contributes to evolving analyses of the public health, legal, and ethical consequences of immigration policy.

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Peer relationships at residential care institutions for unaccompanied refugee minors: An under-utilised resource?

Guro B Omland & Agnes Andenas - Qualitative Social Work, 02 Jul 2019

Without access to their own families, how do young, unaccompanied refugee minors re-establish their social lives in ways that facilitate a sense of togetherness in their everyday lives during resettlement? This question was approached by exploring young persons’ creation of relational practices and the kinds of sociomaterial conditions that seemed to facilitate the evolvement of these practices in Norway, including the professional caregivers’ contributions.

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Child Separations by the Trump Administration

Committee on Oversight and Reform, U.S. House of Representatives, 01 Jul 2019

This staff report has been prepared at the request of Chairman Elijah E. Cummings to summarize the data obtained by the Committee on Oversight and Reform's subpoenas to compel the Trump Administration to produce documents relating to its policy of separating immigrant children from their families.