specific needs of children and elderly left behind as a ... - IOM Moldova

The perception of labour migration
viewed are relevant in confirming the importance of honest discussions
parents should have with their children before migrating as well as their
acceptance of their children’s opinion. It is important to highlight that children
are working hard to adapt themselves to the circumstances that in
fact are greater then their psychological potential, respectively an initial
acceptance can degenerate into an ultimate rejection. The elder the child is
the higher the probability of an easier acceptance of their parents’ migration.
Finally, the variety of concrete situations can be explained by the fact
that interviewed children were of different ages, segregated by the nature
and frequency of communication as well as by the degree of understanding
with their guardian.
• Explaining the reasons for parents’ migration
The majority of interviewed children explain and even justify the necessity
of their parents going abroad for work via the following reasons; poor
financial conditions of the family (“she had to leave because we needed
money”), high unemployment rate or salaries that do not provide a decent
living, the impossibility to pay for children’s education, health issues,
the need to buy a house or to pay back debts, domestic violence,
etc. As a rule, children associate their parents departure abroad with their
objective to provide a good level of welfare: “to be able to save money in
order to educate me” (III_C_3); “to have clothes, school supplies... to be able
to pay the heating...”, being aware that “for us our parents are leaving abroad
to work” (FG_C_4_rural).
Some of the interviewed experts talked about children who had severe
health issues, this fact determining their parents to leave abroad: “We
know a lot of cases when the leaving of parents abroad for work was motivated
by a severe condition that their child suffered from, and which involved
the necessity of an expensive medical intervention or treatment abroad. Parents
decided to leave in order to save their child’s life and health. These ones
are the kind of decisions that are worth all the respect” (III_EC_3).
During the realization of the study, some particular situations were highlighted
that convinced parents to migrate. For instance, after her husband’s
death a mother of three children had to struggle to provide for her children’s
upbringing: “It was so hard for my mother to provide for us after my
father’s death. Then she left us in our grandparent’s care and went abroad”
(III_C_18). In some cases, the interviewed explained the decision to migrate
abroad for work by a collection of situations that influenced the person:
“she had no money to provide us and my father was beating her when he
was drunk... he was beating her so cruelly” (III_C_22).
The study unveiled that parents decide to leave abroad for work not only
because of despair but also to prevent an ultimate poverty as they are aware
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