The Consequences of Migration for Child Well-being in Sending Areas

描述（由申请人提供）：国内和国际移民的增加影响了发展中国家越来越多的儿童。由于父母一方或双方外出寻找工作，大多数儿童被留守。移徙代表了父母缺席的一种独特形式，并可能以复杂的方式影响这些儿童，因父母缺席而产生相当大的社会成本，但通过汇款带来经济利益。然而，越来越多的文献并没有在单一框架内研究移民的多重影响及其中介机制。拟议的项目将研究两个发展中环境中父母外出移民对儿童福祉的影响。该项目利用墨西哥和印度尼西亚具有良好可比性和丰富的微观和宏观信息的高质量纵向数据集（墨西哥家庭生活调查和印度尼西亚家庭生活调查），并以项目负责人之前工作中制定的概念框架为基础，旨在：（1）研究移民对墨西哥和印度尼西亚留守儿童福祉（教育状况、认知发展和健康）关键方面的有利和不利影响； (2) 探讨各种社会经济、社会心理和行为因素如何调节移民对儿童福祉的影响； (3) 评估两类移民流（国内移民和跨国移民）结果的普遍性； (4) 检查两个研究环境中结果的普遍性。将使用纵向数据分析方法（固定效应和随机效应模型）来加强因果关系。这项研究将是第一个针对发展中环境中移民留守儿童的全面研究。它概述并测试了一个复杂的概念框架，研究了移民对各种儿童结局的有益和破坏性影响。研究结果将有助于关于移民是否以及如何影响发展中国家儿童福祉的辩论。比较分析的结果将产生一个更充分的框架，可以更好、更广泛地解释外流对儿童的影响。本研究中开发和完善的概念框架和分析方法都可以在其他环境中进行调整，并有助于为未来的工作提供信息。 公共健康相关性：这项研究将提供关于外出移民对儿童健康、教育和认知发展的影响的全面而可靠的信息。此类信息可以为地方政府和美国国际开发署和联合国儿童基金会等全球发展组织设计干预计划提供信息，以增强收益，同时减轻人口外迁对儿童健康和福祉造成的成本。 1

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Rising internal and international migration has affected a growing number of children in developing countries. Most of these children are left behind as one or both parents leave to seek work elsewhere. Migration represents a distinct form of parental absence, and is likely to affect these children in complex ways, generating sizeable social costs as a result of parental absence, but bringing economic benefits through remittances. However, the growing body of literature has not examined these multiple influences of migration and their mediating mechanisms within a single framework. The proposed project will examine the effects of parental out-migration on child well-being in two developing settings. Using high-quality longitudinal datasets from Mexico and Indonesia with excellent comparability and rich micro- and macro-level information (the Mexican Family Life Survey and the Indonesia Family Life Survey), and building on a conceptual framework developed in the PI's previous work, this project seeks to: (1) examine both the beneficial and detrimental impacts of migration on key aspects of well-being (educational status, cognitive development, and health) of children left behind in Mexico and Indonesia; (2) explore how various socioeconomic, psychosocial, and behavioral factors mediate the effects of migration on child well-being; (3) assess the generalizability of results across two streams of migration (within-country and cross-country out- migration); and (4) examine the generalizability of results across the two research settings. Longitudinal data analysis methods (fixed- and random-effect modeling) will be used to strengthen causal claims. This research will be the first comprehensive study of children left behind by migrants in developing settings. It outlines and tests a complex conceptual framework, examining both beneficial and disruptive effects of out- migration on a wide array of child outcomes. Findings will contribute to the debate on whether and how migration shapes child well-being in developing societies. Results from the comparative analysis will lead to a more adequate framework that can better and more broadly interpret the consequences of out-migration for children. Both the conceptual framework and the analytic approach developed and refined in this research can be adapted in other settings and help inform future work. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This research will provide comprehensive and robust information on the effects of out-migration on children's health, education, and cognitive development. Such information can inform the design of intervention programs by local governments and global development organizations such as USAID and UNICEF, to reinforce the benefits while mitigating the costs of out-migration for children's health and well-being. 1