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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No Future for our Children: Challenges faced by foreign minors living in South Africa

Ncumisa Willie & Popo Mfubu - AFRICAN HUMAN MOBILITY REVIEW, Vol.2 No1, Jan-April 2016, 2016

This paper highlights the difficulties faced by foreign minors and how the gaps in law leave them undocumented, vulnerable and unable to access social services. This paper also discusses how South Africa’s approach to accompanied and unaccompanied foreign minor children provides no durable long term solutions for these children, effectively leaving them in a legal hole once they reach the age of majority.

No Future for our Children: Challenges faced by foreign minors living in South Africa

Translations in Kinscripts: Child Circulation among Ghanaians Abroad

Cati Coe - Affective Circuits: African Migrations to Europe and the Pursuit of Social…, 2016

This chapter discusses the practice of child circulation in Ghana.

Preview Book

Protecting migrants under the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Social Charter

Yannis Ktistakis, 2016

This handbook, produced by the Directorate General of Human Rights and Rule of Law, is a practical tool for legal professionals from Council of Europe member states who wish to strengthen their skills in applying the European Convention on Human Rights and the case law of the European Court of Human Rights in their daily work.

Children with Traumatic Separation: Information for Professionals

National Child Traumatic Stress Network, 2016

This guidance from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network provides information and suggestions for helping children who experience traumatic separation from a caregiver.

Austria: Country Fact Sheet

2016

This fact sheet highlights Austria’s process in transforming institutional care towards community-based and family-based systems.

Analytical report: Child Fosterage and Child Domestic Work in Haiti in 2014

Tone Sommerfelt, 31 Dec 2015

This report is an analysis of the overall findings from the research project on Haitian child domestic workers.

Children on the Move: Mancala, the Game of Moving

Save the Children and the International Organization for Migration , 03 Dec 2015

This pamphlet and the accompanying video, a joint publication by Save the Children and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), share the experiences of "children on the move" in various countries, including Turkey, Italy, and Sweden.

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Initial Assessment Report: Protection Risks for Women and Girls in the European Refugee and Migrant Crisis

Rebecca Eapen, UNHCR; Fabrizia Falcione, UNFPA; Marcy Hersh, WRC; Katharina Obser, WRC; Ali Shaar, UNFPA, 01 Dec 2015

Concerned by the protection risks faced by women and girls, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC) undertook a joint seven-day assessment mission to Greece and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia in November 2015. This report describes the assessment’s findings and key recommendations for the European Union (EU), transit and destination country governments, humanitarian actors and civil society organizations (CSOs).

Community-based surveillance to monitor trends in unaccompanied and separated children in eastern DRC

Rubenstein BL, Spencer C, Mansourian H, Noble E, Munganga GB, and Stark L, 01 Dec 2015

A mobile phone-based community surveillance system was piloted in the Democratic Republic of the Congo with the goal of identifying new cases of unaccompanied and separated children on a weekly basis.

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Childhood in the Shadow of War: Voices of Young Syrians

Save the Children Sweden, 01 Dec 2015

Through the voices of children, parents and staff working in the region, this report by Save the Children presents a glimpse into the struggles faced by refugee and displaced children and families from Syria. The report is primarily based on children’s stories as told to Save the Children in urban areas in Lebanon and in camps and urban areas in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Drawings and other playful sessions were used with the children to help them tell stories of their everyday lives without the negative impact a deep interview might have.