Research Seed Grant | 2008-2009
The Consequences of Labor Migration for Child Well-being in Two Developing Settings
by Yao Lu (Sociology)
This project studies the well being of children in various aspects of the labor migration process (moving with parents or left behind by one or both parents) in two developing settings, in the context of massive migration flows and increasing involvement of children worldwide. Migration, a force that deeply changes the life conditions and structures of individuals, family units, and communities, tends to affect children in complex and multifaceted ways, helping in some respects and hurting in others. The experience of migration itself or separation from migrant parents in the stage of childhood will not only have immediate impacts on child well-being, but carry long.term consequences for their transition to adulthood and future socioeconomic attainment. However, very little attention has been given to children in the migration debate, in particular in developing countries. The project seeks to accomplish four aims: (1) to develop a conceptual and analytic framework for understanding the influences of migration on child well.being; (2) to examine the impacts of migration on key aspects of well-being (educational status, cognitive development, and health) of children moving with parents within a country and children left behind by internal or international migrant parents in developing settings, using Indonesia and Mexico as case studies; (3) to explore various underlying socioeconomic, psychosocial, and behavioral mechanisms generating the impacts of migration; and (4) to assess the generalizeability of results by studying the similarities and differences of the migration effects across the two settings (which share broad similarities but are also characterized by different levels of socioeconomic development and different stages of migration) and across two streams of migration (internal vs. international). Highly comparable longitudinal datasets with rich information on migration behavior and characteristics of children, parents, households, and communities will be utilized, and various statistical analysis will be conducted to strengthen causal claims and facilitate systematic comparisons.
