A new study on how children left behind cope when their parents go overseas for work has found mixed results.
Professor Lucy Jordan is Head of Social Work at James Cook University and a principal investigator of a new study investigating how exposure to parental migration during childhood shapes later development in children in Indonesia and the Philippines.
"The Philippines had the largest number of international migrants among Southeast Asian countries, with an estimated migrant population of over 6 million.
"Indonesia is also a major supplier of migrant labour globally, with an estimated 300,000 international migrants in 2020. Although accurate statistics are lacking, it is believed that more than 1 million Indonesian children have migrant parents working abroad," said Professor Jordan.
Filipinos represent a growing share of regional Pacific migration to Australia. The government of the Philippines says 3% of overseas Filipino workers were in Australia, while nearly 10,000 Indonesian people applied for work or holiday visas in Australia in 2023/24.
The current study used longitudinal data from more than a thousand households in 2008 (with children aged 4.56 on average) and more than 800 households in 2016/17 (with children aged 12.78 on average).
They looked at the impact of the absence overseas of one or more parents on the school performance and psychological well-being of children left behind over childhood.
"We found parental migration during early and later stages of childhood impacts children's education and psychological well-being when they reach adolescence.
"However, these impacts are not uniformly negative and are contingent upon the timing and cumulative exposure of children to parental migration," said Professor Jordan.
She said as an example, in Indonesia the migration of a father during middle or late childhood improved children's school performance but also increased anti-social behaviour.
For Filipino children, the timing of maternal migration matters: during their first three years it is linked to higher levels of depressed mood, anxiety and loneliness, whereas migration during middle and late childhood reduces the risk of such problems.
"Parent– child separation induced by migration is often compared with family disruption following parental divorce. However, the results of this study reveal nuanced associations between parental migration and children's development, bringing both potential economic benefits and psychological costs," said Professor Jordan.
She said the findings underscore the importance of tailored policies and support programs that acknowledge the diverse impacts of parental migration across different developmental stages, with the consideration of distinct cultural contexts.
