and the Construction of Vulnerability - Child Trafficking

More documents

Recommendations

Info

ly understood the limited financial options that led their parents to migrate in the first place. 195 Certainly, these children did not necessarily grow up to become “delinquent”, and it may be that research into the factors that promote resilience 196 amongst children who are left behind when parents migrate may be more useful than that which merely catalogues their potential vulnerability: Some children in transnational families adjust to their household arrangements with greater success than other do. Those who feel that their mothers strive to nurture them as well as to be good providers are more likely to be accepting. The support of extended kin, or perhaps a sense of public accountability for their welfare, also helps children combat feelings of abandonment. Likewise, a more genderegalitarian value system enables children to appreciate their mothers as good providers, which in turn allows them to see their mothers’ migrations as demonstrations of love. 197 This is particularly important given that the desire to provide for children and improve their life chances by remitting money home is often a central motivation for parental migration, a motivation that research suggests is not misplaced. There are studies that show children from remittance recipient households stay in school longer. In El Salvador, US$100 of remittance income lowers the probability of children leaving school by 54 per cent in urban areas and in the Philippines, a 10 per cent rise in household income through remittances leads to a proportional increase in enrolment rates among children aged 17 to 21. 198 Similar benefits have been identified with respect to health care. Some commentators therefore argue that the international community and national governments should take steps to: ● lower the cost of sending remittances home by increasing competition among service providers, improving payment system infrastructure and removing regulatory barriers ● promote financial democracy by encouraging greater use of the banking system ● promote greater remittance flows by avoiding taxation and overregulation. 199 Of course, improved standards of living wrought by remittances do not necessarily counterbalance the effects of the loss of family intimacy implied by parental migration. However, it is important to remember that many of the problems experienced by children of migrating parents result directly from immigration regimes that a) prevent parents from taking children with them when they migrate and b) make it difficult, if not impossible, for migrant parents to maintain contact with children through regular return visits. xi Furthermore, given that it is largely children from low-income families that remain at home, advocacy and intervention work on this issue needs to challenge, 195. Parrenas, 2003, pp. 40-41 196. Daniel, 2003 197. Parrenas, 2003, p. 50 198. López Córdova, 2006, but see also Markova and Reilly, 2006 199. López Córdova, 2006 Child Migration and the Construction of Vulnerability 53
ather than endorse, assumptions that penalise “the childhoods of the poor and the lifestyles of minorities and justify interventions to ‘correct’ them”. 200 One such assumption is that parental migration necessarily represents a threat to children. There is certainly evidence that some children whose parents migrate are left with insufficient adult support, and that of this group, some become involved in drug use, drop out of school, etc. But such behaviours are also exhibited by some children who are separated from parents for other reasons, such as death or family breakdown. 200. Marcus and Harper, 1995, p. 40 54 Child Migration and the Construction of Vulnerability
Page 1 and 2: Child Migration and the Constructio
Page 3 and 4: Save the Children fights for childr
Page 5 and 6: 6 Child Migration and the Construct
Page 7 and 8: 8 Child Migration and the Construct
Page 9 and 10: These restrictive approaches to mig
Page 11 and 12: 12 Child Migration and the Construc
Page 13 and 14: In affluent, economically developed
Page 15 and 16: esent the most significant menace t
Page 17 and 18: 18 Child Migration and the Construc
Page 19 and 20: A further set of conceptual problem
Page 21 and 22: tant to gather data on the problems
Page 23 and 24: dren, seeing it as opening opportun
Page 25 and 26: cially when children have lost pare
Page 27 and 28: Very often, adults and children fle
Page 29 and 30: groups facing the greatest risks of
Page 31 and 32: Africa, this very often means worki
Page 33 and 34: Though migrant women and children a
Page 35 and 36: paigns, and measures to rescue and
Page 37 and 38: members of the Korean migrant commu
Page 39 and 40: cent. Domestic violence data from C
Page 41 and 42: future. Some child migrants were ho
Page 43 and 44: dren being evicted on their eightee
Page 45 and 46: Rights Watch report describes Moroc
Page 47 and 48: children. One of the problems with
Page 49 and 50: separation from the children, who a
Page 51: stated that both parents had migrat
Page 55 and 56: ● ● ties open to migrant childr
Page 57 and 58: References Aggleton, P. (ed) (1999)
Page 59 and 60: Chant, S., and McIlwaine, C. (1995)
Page 61 and 62: Hashim, I. (2005) “Exploring the
Page 63 and 64: Miller, A. (2004) ‘Sexuality, vio
Page 65 and 66: Race, Gender and Migration. New Yor
Page 67 and 68: i To give an indication of the sign
Page 69: Save the Children fights for childr

and the Construction of Vulnerability - Child Trafficking

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?