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Child Child MigrationMigration

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Migration’s changing age structure: a field-building opportunity

Project to synthesize existing information, explore potential opportunity for impact

Research on child

outcomes

Research on migration

Scholars

Data

Research

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End Goals• Future of Children volumes

– Is there enough credible research ?

• Is there a foundation/need to forge a child centric migration agenda?

– Practical and research

• How to sustain momentum?

– Data needs and opportunities

– Research and intervention agenda?

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Synthesis Papers: Step # 1

• Overall Objective

To assess the state of knowledge about migrant youth and children in academic research about migrant youth and children in developing countries/industrialized countries (mainly but not limited to Europe)

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Anticipated Outcomes

• Development of a framework matrix to conceptualize relevant research topics

• Review existing academic literature

• Assess available data to study child and youth migration

• Identify key researchers

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Guiding Questions

• What topics have been explored most thoroughly and which remain understudied?

• Does adequate data exist to accurately evaluate the growing and changing roles of migrant youth?

• Who is doing the highest caliber research about migrant youth, and for which countries?

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Child-Centric Questions

• How does migration influence well-being of children and youth? – Presumes modeling of the auspices of

migration; – Comparison to nonmigrants

• How do migrant children and youth fare in their host countries? – Comparisons to nonmigrant youth at

destination

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Migrant Youth in Developing Countries

Andrea Rossi

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ROSSI--Definitions

• Population: children & youth (0-18; 24)• Types of Movement

– Duration (temporary, permanent)– Spatial (internal, international)

• Child Centric• Accompanied vs unaccompanied• Second generation • Foster arrangement• Left behind (one or both parents)• Voluntary/forced

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Organization of Findings

• Migration types: (comparison groups)– Children Left Behind (non migrant youth?)– Forced Migration and Trafficking (??)– Migrant children in developing nations (host

country youth?)

• Methodological challenges– Endogeneity of migration decision – Data limitations – Defining migration households

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Children Left Behind via remittances

1. Child health: – Birth weight; underweight; infant mortality– Mechanisms: Social remittances + income

2. Educational outcomes– Drop out; enrollment duration– Mechanisms: income (+); child replacement for

adult labor (-) – Comparison group: children of nonmigrants

(selection?)– Mixed results: most positive, some negative

(age dependent)

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Children Left Behind via remittances

3. Youth labor force activity– Parent absence child labor replacement– Market & family time reallocation – Effects depend on rural/urban residence

4. Socio-Emotional Costs– Underspecified, but presumed to be negative– Highly dependent on age at parent migration

and duration

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Children Left Behind

5. Gender and family structure– Can mediate the consequences of migration

for young people via resource and time allocation

– depends on which parent migrates and remits

– If moms have a say in resource (remittance) allocation

– Open questions: Parental time channel and child outcomes

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Forced Migration

• Forced migrants and refugee youth

– characterized as vulnerable youth but no systematic empirical evidence

• Victims of trafficking:

–mainly qualitative data

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Migrant Children in LDC’s

• Destination countries: stock and age composition of foreign born (though no indication of numbers)

• Impacts:

1. Health

2. Education

3. Economic activity

4. Psycho-social

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Migrant Children in LDCs

1. Health impacts• Survival advantages but mechanisms not

always clear (rural/urban)• Migration for health care, though speculative• Migration and health risks: ambiguous,

depending on conditions at origin and destination and auspices of migration

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Migrant Children in LDCs

2. Education Outcomes– Sparse empirical evidence for LDC’s– Discussion of hypothetical links and

appropriate comparison groups3. Employment Outcomes

– Sparse empirical evidence for child labor in LDCs; suggestive case studies, but no meta analysis

– Most studies focus on older age groups (e.g. McKenzie)

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Migrant Children in LDCs

4. Psycho-Social Impacts

–Greatest dearth of information; hypothetical channels for outcomes

–Disruption effects

–(Non) Adaptation [cultural conflict]

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Challenges for Child Centric Migration Research

• Data:

– Migration questions in ongoing surveys

– Migration context: family vs. individual (child)

• Estimation and counterfactuals– Endogeneity of migration decision– Relevant reference groups and comparisons

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Conceptual Considerations1. Migrant children and youth

– Youth as category of all migrants vs. migrants as a category of all youth?

– Definition refinements—e.g., 2nd generation– International vs. internal migrants—do

outcomes differ?

2. Age– profiles of migration more informative than

migrant stock figures– Timing of migration crucial for assessing

outcomes

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Conceptual Considerations

3. Decision unit: “Bring back the family”

– Why do children migrate? (tied, autonomous, forced)

– How does the family figure in the decisions for youth/child migration?

– How to represent the family/household for conceptualizing child/youth migration decision-making?

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Findings and Questions

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Migration

Family Structure

Child Welfare

Remittances