This paper examines how broader economic and labour market forces influence family separation and the placement of children in residential care in Cambodia, amid ongoing child care deinstitutionalisation reforms. While global evidence highlights the harm caused by residential care and promotes family and community-based alternatives, Cambodia’s reform efforts remain largely reactive and institution-focused, paying limited attention to structural drivers of family separation.
This study identifies key macroeconomic factors influencing child care practices in Cambodia by drawing on qualitative insights from those directly involved in family separation and child placement processes. Following a review of relevant literature and key policy documents, the research involved a total of fifty-five participants, including caregivers, National Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) staff, and government social workers and managers with experience in residential care placements. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions, and were then thematically analysed to identify recurring patterns and structural influences.
Participants highlighted widespread labour precarity, high labour migration rates, a growing reliance on intergenerational kinship care arrangements and household overindebtedness as key contributors to family separation and subsequent residential care admissions. This context reflects Cambodia’s neoliberal political economy, characterised by inadequate social safety nets and weak regulation of labour and financial markets.
Cambodia’s child care reforms, aligned with global deinstitutionalisation policy models, primarily focus on institutional gatekeeping and reintegration efforts but insufficiently address the structural socioeconomic contexts that drive family separation. This paper argues for an expanded child care deinstitutionalisation framework that includes labour policy and economic considerations alongside child protection. By incorporating structural determinants, such an approach can better prevent family separation and improve long-term outcomes for children and families. These findings contribute policy and programming insights for reforming child welfare systems in Cambodia and comparable contexts, highlighting the need to move beyond symptom-focused interventions toward addressing the underlying causes of family vulnerability.