Parents leaving for work abroad can have an impact on their children. In migrant-sending countries, children often remain in the country with either only one parent, or in the care of relatives. This phenomenon is often linked to children and young adolescents’ altered norms and perceptions of ‘family’; or anxiety and difficulty in coping with social pressures that, in turn, affect the social fabric of families and communities.
For children and adolescents in Moldova and Ukraine however, whose parents have been migrating to the European Union for work in the last two decades, a different outcome has been analysed – as the Children Left Behind by Labour Migration research of the CASTLE Project shows.
As having parents abroad at work became the norm, there is more mutual understanding and support. Children compensate for [their] parents’ absence through heightened autonomy, self-care, and responsibility including supervision of their younger siblings. They also find a purpose in tough schoolwork, hobbies and sports, and a sense of agency and self-esteem.says Viorela Telegdi-Csetri, CASTLE Project Manager
The EU-funded project through ICMPD’s Migration Partnership Facility (MPF), which concluded this year, sought meaning beyond the statistics. Out of the increasing prevalence of these transnational families, this research project in the last two years in Romania, Moldova and Ukraine looked deeply into roles of all actors involved; including policy-makers, social protection, and service providers responsible for the children’s wellbeing; and more importantly, migrants families and the children themselves. It also highlighted the challenges that children left behind face due to a lack in planning of care responsibilities, which is in itself a consequence of the precarious nature of migrant work and short-term employment abroad.
Making data work: from an institutional level
The CASTLE Project thus led to significant improvement in Moldovan legislation around custody, which is a result of project consultations that identified both the positive and negative effects of migration on transnational families; as well as recommendations for solutions. The law now clearly defines the organisational and operational structure of guardianship, to address the complexities of ensuring children’s best interest, and that their welfare is the core of custody arrangements.
The project also led to enhanced child protection capacities in Moldova and Ukraine, particularly in specialised training on labour migration issues. In Ukraine, 76 local staff were trained on legal advice, data collection, and service provision, and 105 in Moldova, providing them the necessary knowledge and skills to effectively understand and support transnational families. Participants in Moldova, including child protection specialists, also highlighted the usefulness of the applied methods and the psychologist's advice.
A training guide/handbook was developed for professionals, caregivers, and especially parents who were moving for work, including practical advice on institutions to turn to when planning to go abroad, preparing for departure, and managing the associated challenges. This enhances their knowledge of childcare transfer, transnational communication tools, psychosocial support, and legal protection of their children who stay behind.
Likewise, the CASTLE project contributed to widening the knowledge base on children left behind, by contextualising the data and insights into the experiences of children and of parents; as well as of the other stakeholders involved in migration across the three countries of origin.
Making children active part of the process
Most importantly, a unique feature of the CASTLE Project is its participatory approach: ensuring that children's and youth’s voices and lived experiences matter, in both data gathering and analysis. Engaging them in the research process proved an innovative and empowering approach, allowing the young ‘co-researchers’ to develop skills for their future while fostering a sense of self-reliance. It also gave the adult researchers a deeper, more personal look into the young people’s perspectives.
One young participant shared how his perception of his family in the context of migration changed significantly: he no longer felt anxious about the idea of a potential ‘abandonment’ – as sometimes society perceives transnational families – but he was happy to finally be in a group of young people in similar situation, where he could feel ‘normal.says Áron Telegdi-Csetri, Research Manager
Moldovan and Ukrainian youth and teachers also received training on the YouCreate Methodology, fostering skills development for the various initiatives, and enabling them to interact with local representatives, and ultimately, allowing them to also learn from the lived experiences of their peers whose parents also work abroad. Meanwhile, students of journalism and communication, and communication practitioners in Moldova, Ukraine, and Romania received also targeted training, to enhance media coverage and improve public narrative around labour migration.
Finally, the CASTLE Project’s key findings show the perspectives of migrants’ children, experiences of working parents abroad, and local authorities' and other stakeholders’ viewpoints on the matter. The testimonials from researchers especially affirmed how the project has had a profound influence on young participants’ personal development, particularly in fostering leadership, communication skills, and consensus-building.
The project shows the reach and impact of migrant parents on their family relationships, as children learn to empathise better with the challenges their [parents] face, and at the same time develop their own sense of responsibility. Overall, these insights from both Moldova and Ukraine underscore data help define (and measure) the effectiveness of addressing the multifaceted needs of families affected by labour migration
[These] children mature at a younger age. Instead of being ‘spoiled’ by economic benefits, they see themselves as tougher, more mature, determined and hard-working than their non-transnational counterparts whom they tend to see as spoiled by the luxury of parental presence.says Ms Telegdi-Csetri
About the Project
The CASTLE Project was implemented in June 2021-December 2023 by Babeș-Bolyai University of Romania, Terre des hommes – Aide à l’enfance dans le monde, Terre des Hommes-Moldova, Terre des Hommes-Ukraine, the Ukrainian Institute for Social Research Oleksandr Yaremenko, and the Academy of Economic Studies of Moldova. Under the umbrella of the project, 16 academic papers and three policy briefs were published and the June 2024 Special Issue of the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies was co-edited where essential findings were published. Research in the field will continue through the Centre of Research for the study of Transnational Families at the Babeș-Bolyai University of Romania. More information here.
