The 4th ADBI-OECD-ILO Roundtable on Labor Migration in Asia: Building HumanCapital Across Borders – Tokyo 27-28 Jan 2014

The Impact ofThe Impact ofMigration on ChildrenMigration on ChildrenLeft Behind

A d R i

The views expressed in this presentation are the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), its Board of Directors, or the governments they represent. ADBI does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this paper and accepts no responsibility for any consequences of their use. Terminology used may not necessarily be consistent with ADB official terms.

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Andrea RossiRegional Adviser Social Policy UNICEF Regional Office for South Asia

Left Behind

• Living in a family with at least one parent away• Living in a family with at least one parent awayfor long periods is part of the normal experience of childhood for many children in p ythe developing world.

– South Africa: 25% of all households have members who are migrant workers, but this proportion rises to over 40% of households in deep rural areas (SAMP 2004).

– Bangladesh: between 18 and 40% of rural households have at least one migrant member living and working elsewhere (Afsar 2003).

– Tanzania: that between 50-60% of people living in rural households have at least one member away while the figure for rural Mali was 80% (Tacolileast one member away, while the figure for rural Mali was 80% (Tacoli 2002).

Composite effectpFor adults, equating people’s standard of living with

income and consumption levels Not forincome and consumption levels. Not for children. Need to look at intra-householddistributional issues , and children well beingg

Well- being outcome is the result of two differentcomponents, one positive and one negative.

For example:• lack of parental care produces a potentially adverse health or education

effect,remittances can compensate for maternal absenteeism due their positive contribution to the household income and to the household’s potential to access and provide better services.

•

p

Health• Positive contribution of migration to infant

mortality reductionmortality reduction• Children in households with migrant

b l lik l t b d i htmembers are less likely to be underweight• Mexico a 1 percent increase in the share of

recipient households reduces the infantrecipient households reduces the infant mortality rate by 1.2 per thousand

• Positive effects of remittances are confined to the households in the poorest quintile of the income distribution

Social Remittances(Levitt 1998)

H h ld i d t t i ifi tHousehold income does not present a significant effect on low birth weight, whereas receivingremittances always has a significant effect reducingremittances always has a significant effect, reducinglow birth weight

Migrant members of the household bring back notonly financial remittances but also new information, and values that may have a positive effect onchildren. This positive effect depends, however, onth ibilit f i ti f t t b tthe possibility of existing means of contact between migrants and the household

EducationThe effect of migration on school gradescompleted will be equal to the sum of:p q• the impact of external migration on a child’s

educational attainment through its impact ong pfamily income (expected to be positive)

• and the impact of external migration on a child’s education attainment through its impact onfamily structure (expected to be negative).

• The effect of remittances on schooling may vary with the educational level of migrating parents. Results from Latineducational level of migrating parents. Results from Latin America shows that migration’s positive effect on school attendance is usually limited to children with parents with a low level of education

Positive effects on Education

• Reduce drop out: because remittances relieve some of the pressure on household budgets, families can afford to have their children spend more time in school.

• Higher demand for institutionalized child care in families• Higher demand for institutionalized child care in familieswhere one of the parents is migrating

• Children in left behind households have ahigher probability of attending private schools

• Extra income a household gains from remittances may allow children to delay entering the workforce in order toallow children to delay entering the workforce in order to further their studies, increasing the final level of education..

Negative effects on Education

• Parental migration can have negative impact on education if it increases the migration decision ofyoung males or increases the need for young females to engage in housework ()engage in housework ().

• Remittances lead to changes on consumption patterns, reduce labour supply, and increase need for additional

itt i th f tremittances in the future. ().

• The reduction in the number of adult role models in the home may increase the child-rearing responsibilitieshome, may increase the child rearing responsibilities of resident household members, placing greaterdemands on older children to assist in running ands pporting the ho seholdsupporting the household ()

Economic activity (child labour)• A result of impact of education• Remittances may replace the income obtained fromRemittances may replace the income obtained from

child work, thereby reducing the need for economic activity of children regardless of the effect on return of educationeducation ().

• Migration of an adult member and the transfer of remittances do not directly influence their productivity. y p yTherefore, expected and predominant income effects of remittances can potentially contribute to reducing the incidence of child workincidence of child work.

Economic activity (child labour)within the household:the migration of an adult member may produce twothe migration of an adult member may produce twodistinct direct effects on the household demand forchild work:child work:• it increases the marginal productivity of the

child, who is required to substitute for the c d, o s equ ed o subs u e o eforegone adult labour;

• can influence the productivity of child work if thep yremittances are used to finance productiveinvestments, such as the purchase of land or ofproductive equipment

Economic activity (child labour)Increase in remittances received has two effects:• it lowers the amount of time children devote to• it lowers the amount of time children devote to

wage employment outside the household,• it increases the time children work and receive• it increases the time children work and receive

a wage within family-run economic activities.

On balance, the effects of remittances are positive,as this latter increase (of time spent within family-as this latter increase (of time spent within familyrun economic activities) is smaller than thereduction in the time worked outside the household. (Yang)

Psycho Social

• The social cost of migration can be very high, g y g ,particularly due to the lack of parental care.Exacerbated if long term migration of one of the parents may lead to permanent disruption of familyparents may lead to permanent disruption of family unity– No quantitative researchq– No evident impact on well being indicators

• Remittances can compensate for maternalb t i d th i iti t ib ti t thabsenteeism due their positive contribution to the

household income and to the household’s potentialto access and provide better health, education, andto access and provide better health, education, andwork opportunities

Gender and Remittancesintra-household distributional issues

The income and livelihood effects onhousehold members left behind depend on:

– The level of income that migrants earn

– The extent to which they can and do sendremittances back

– How they are used in the household(Gender and preferences in the use of remittances)

Impact

Non income income

POSITIVE Social remittances Impact onPOSITIVE Social remittancesAgency

Impact onfamily income

N angesEGATIVE Impact on

family structureConsumption chmarginal produof the child

ctivityof the child

Impact: control group

Children at destination

MigrantChildrendestination Children

Children atorigin

Left behind

Endogenenity

• Migrant and non migrant household are notMigrant and non migrant household are notsimilar and remittances are not a randomlyassigned transferg

• External event may have a direct impact onExternal event may have a direct impact on children well being and at the same time determine the decision of migration or gincrease the level of remittances sent by migrating parents

• Solution: instrumental variable approach and propensity score matching, panel data

conclusion• Although children adolescents are most affected by the

impact of migration, they are absent from the migration and remittances debate.

• There is an urgent need to increase awareness ofchildren and young people’s rights and to include theirchildren and young people s rights and to include their voices

• Need of reliable data and robust analysis• Effects of migration and remittances depend on the social,

cultural, political and economic context which will have to be taken into account to minimize social costs and maximizetaken into account to minimize social costs and maximize social benefits

• Remittances by themselves cannot guarantee the realization of the right to quality education and health care, nor surmount gender discrimination

• Remittances should not replace public social investments

Source: Rossi, A. The Impact of Migration on Children Left Behind in Developing Countries: outcomes analysis andp g p g ydata requirements, Harvard Carr Center for Human Rights Policy WP, 2008

Andrea RossiR i l Ad i S i l P liRegional Adviser Social PolicyUNICEF Regional Office for South AsiaK thm nd Nep lKathmandu, Nepal

arossi@unicef orgarossi@unicef.org