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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New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants

United Nations General Assembly, high-level meeting to address large movements of refugees and migrants, 19 Sep 2016

The New York Declaration is the outcome document of the United Nations General Assembly High-level Meeting to address large movements of refugees and migrants, held in New York on the 19th September 2016.

Transnational Mothers and the Law: Ghanaian Women’s Pathways to Family Reunion and Consequences for Family Life

Miranda Poeze and Valentina Mazzucato - Family Life in an Age of Migration and Mobility, 17 Sep 2016

How migration policies affect family mobility and relationships is a new and emerging area of study within transnational family literature. This chapter contributes to this literature by providing an in-depth examination of Ghanaian migrant mothers’ encounters with Dutch family migration policies and the impacts such policies have on their pathways to family reunion and the consequences for family relationships.

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At What Cost? – The Human, Economic and Strategic Cost of Australia’s Asylum Seeker Policies and the Alternatives

Lisa Button and Shane Evans, Save the Children Australia, in consultation with Amy Lamoin, UNICEF Australia, 14 Sep 2016

This report by Save the Children Australia and UNICEF Australia explores the human, economic and strategic cost of Australia’s current policies which seek to deter asylum seekers from migrating to Australia by sea.

Children Alone: Pulled from the sea, fallen by the wayside

Oxfam, 08 Sep 2016

This media briefing from Oxfam describes the Italian reception system for unaccompanied minors which "has turned out to be inadequate for protecting lone refugee and migrant children and their rights," according to the report.

The duality of children’s political agency in deportability

Jacob Lind - Sage Publications, 06 Sep 2016

This article discusses how children’s political agency manifests in everyday life. It shows how children who become aware of their legal status as ‘deportable’ reject this subject position and offer their own definitions of who they are and where they belong. Simultaneously, it is argued that children with varying degrees of knowledge about their legal status also express political agency through their struggle to sustain the inclusion they experience.

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The duality of children’s political agency in deportability

Jacob Lind - Sage Journals, 06 Sep 2016

This article discusses how children's political agency manifests in everyday life. It shows how children who become aware of their legal status as 'deportable' reject this subject position and offer their own definitions of who they are and where they belong.

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Transnational ties and the health of sub-Saharan African migrants: The moderating role of gender and family separation

Patience A. Afulani, Jacqueline M. Torres, May Sudhinaraset, Joseph Asunka, 02 Sep 2016

This paper examines the association between cross-border ties and cross-border separation with the health of sub-Saharan African (SSA) migrant adults living in metropolitan France using data from the nationally representative “Trajectoire et Origines” survey.

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Forced to Flee: Inside the World’s 21st Largest Country

Save the Children, 01 Sep 2016

This report serves as a look at the people who are currently displaced around the world.

Moving Beyond Trauma: Child Migrants and Refugees in the United States

David Murphey, PhD - ChildTrends, 01 Sep 2016

This report gives an estimate of the number of immigrant and refugee children who will enter the United States in 2016, where they come from, and the traumas they face. It includes recommendations for policy and practice.

Global Strategy - Beyond Detention: Zambia - Progress Under the Global Strategy Beyond Detention 2014-2019, Mid-2016

UNHCR , 01 Sep 2016

According to this article, in 2015, the instability in Burundi and in the Democratic Republic of Congo resulted in 2,965 persons (mainly from DRC, Burundi and Somalia) applying for asylum in Zambia. Last year, UNHCR was informed that 147 persons of concern, including 24 asylum-seekers and 18 children were being detained for immigration-related purposes.