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

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CHAPTER I Experts say that as a result of the parents’ migration, children: “change their way of thinking, when they are teenagers it is not as obvious as when they are little children, preschoolers, school students… Psychologically speaking children suffer a lot because of their family breakup, the absence of one parent or both parents… Children, especially little one are strongly affected by the breakup of couples” (FG_EC_rural). We can conclude that the impact of migration on children’s emotions is shown through: • The lack of parental care and affection that has a powerful impact on the development of a child personality; • Children left behind as a consequence of labour migration are in permanent need of emotional saturation. This need is not fulfilled and the lack of emotional saturation is reflected in the children’s behaviour; • The emotional content of children left behind – their specific emotions prove that the most important functions of the family are affected, functions that are essential in the development of a child’s personality: - Psychological function: providing emotional support, a favourable environment of therapeutic effect, security needs, protection, including mutual help based on equity, respect and love between partners, parents and children, brothers and sisters; - Identity function, ensuring the feeling of belonging and cohesion, the development of a personal identity, close relationship between spouses and children, through the transfer of inherited capital: the name, resources, family stories, customs according to the genealogical principle; - Children’s socialization function, meant to ensure the children’s care and development, learning and education processes within the family and adequate conditions for children’s education and professional training; • Emotional disadvantage – During extended influence of a stressful character stable and negative emotions and experiences are emerging (traditionally called emotional disadvantage). Emotional disadvantage aggravates the process of mental development of a child, it hinders the establishment of positive relationships based on mutual trust with other people, taking on new social roles and the development of affective communication; • Children who grow up without love and spiritual closeness from their family (deprived of normal emotional attachment) are generally passive, indifferent, incapable to know or exploit the world and they will spend their emotional energy in search of emotional security; 58
Psychological and social effects of migration • The poems written by children left behind, their drawings, essays, messages, and their personal diaries represent a way of expressing their feelings. • Self-image and self-perception The self-image of children without parental care as a consequence of migration and the social perception they get from other people are interdependent. The study allowed us to make a profile of the self-image of children left behind. The results provided by children regarding the representation and assessment of their situation were analysed. Although understanding they were left behind, children find positive moments that maintain a good self-perception. BOX 8 My Family (present) (E_37_14 year old_male_boarding school) My family is small and lonely. Everybody goes wherever they want to… My mom left Moldova and my father behaved badly and used to drink and that’s why we started hanging around in this school. But we are both happy because we feel good here and we got to Drochia school. We also have some brothers abroad and they are far away from us as well as our mother, they are all far away from us. The self-perception of children left behind is determined by comparing themselves to other people and foresees the setting of the value of their own world, of the meaning of social behaviour and individual characteristics. As a rule, the children we interviewed had a healthy selfperception, perceiving themselves as self-confident, patient, sincere, hardworking, beautiful, smart, intelligent, powerful, kind-hearted, obedient, pure, talented, etc. Some children perceive themselves as being advantaged in comparison to the other children whose parents are not abroad. The participants of focusgroup discussions stated that their parents’ departure made them more independent in their decision-making process, changed their financial status and they have a more vast experience. Children’s confidence and positive self-image derives from their appreciation of financial benefits: “I feel that this is it, I have everything, I don’t miss anything” (III_C_13); “because they left for our sake and I don’t think they went there just for fun, but to give us a better future, to be well-educated”; (FG_C_1_urban); “we live more decently, there’s maybe more experience in our life, we get to know more than our colleagues with parents do” (FG_C_1_urban). But many children take their parents migration as a disadvantage. It is obvious that this perception of their own reality has a strong impact 59
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SPECIFIC NEEDS OF CHILDREN AND ELDE
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CONTENTS Foreword .................
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Foreword quence of migration and in
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Page 9 and 10: Executive summary elderly adjust to
Page 11 and 12: Executive summary • To develop fo
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Page 17 and 18: Executive Introduction summary grat
Page 19 and 20: Methodology Executive Introduction
Page 21 and 22: Chapter I The lack of care and affe
Page 23 and 24: The perception of labour migration
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The perception Children’s of labo
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The health of family members The in
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The integrity of migrant families t
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The integrity of migrant families B
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The integrity of migrant families T
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The integrity of migrant families b
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The well-being of migrants’ house
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Values and life plans 1.7. Values a
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Values and life plans arrest shopli
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Values and life plans abroad as I d
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Values and life plans Extremely mar
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Chapter II Some children whose pare
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Normative aspects tection the child
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Normative aspects The legislation o
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Normative aspects Amongst the other
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Normative aspects Still providing p
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Policies and mechanisms existing on
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Mechanisms for coping with difficul
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Some children protest against the a
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Conclusions and recommendations (in
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Conclusions and recommendations sum
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Conclusions and recommendations inf
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Conclusions and recommendations - T
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Conclusions and recommendations - T
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Annexes Code Age Sex Residence envi
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Annexes Annex 4. Data on focus grou
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Annexes Annex 8. Certificate for th
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