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

CHAPTER I
- Left alone, abandoned without moral support.
Insecurity is strongly felt by the elderly left behind. According to the collected
data, the elderly asses themselves as people with a high fear of victimization,
bringing multiple examples of abuse situations they and/or
their peers experienced: “Yes, a couple of years ago a young pal received a
parcel from Italy that his wife sent. She was working there. Another two guys
followed him and killed him on that hill and took his parcel and 200 Euros”
(III_E_1); “On July 22 they stole my bag. I was in a train and I put it next
to my chair and when I looked again the bag was gone. And they also tried
to rob me, they forced the door of my house” (III_E_3); “I know cases when
people lose their houses. There were some women who were alone, and they
rented their apartment and one day he did whatever he could to steal their
apartment from them. They had to sweep the streets to earn their living, poor
girls” (III_E_4).
The high risk of victimization of the elderly left behind was confirmed by
experts in the field: “They live in fear, because people think that if there is a
family where one of the members migrated for work that means that there’s
money in there, there are expensive things and that’s why they tell no one that
their children are abroad. They are afraid of it” (FG_EE_urban).
The self-image of some elderly is fed by the conviction that they performed
their parental role the best they could and as a consequence they can be
proud of their children. The relevant characteristics of their children in
their opinion are:
- Higher education: “He graduated from the University and worked for
an enterprise and the other graduated the Sankt Petersburg University”
(FG_E_1_rural);
- Character features: “They are good children, they never talked bad
things, and they always defended me” (III_E_2_rural);
- Their children’s competences and performances: “They are busy,
they’re always working in Spain, America, Romania… One of my grandsons
got married and lives in the US now, and another one lives in Romania.
They went there because they are smart guys and they had the
capacity to study English and they’re fine” (III_E_5).
Their house represents a valuable good for the elderly and it influences
their identity. A lot of elderly who benefit from residential services say that
the house will be passed over to their children: “I left the house to my girls,
one of them is in Moscow”; is in the state’s care: “My house is in the care
of the Mayoralty of Ghindesti”; was sold: “I sold it and I gave my son the
money, because it’s his house. But my son died and now I have no money
and no house”; “She’s left alone, her daughter sold the house as she has a lot
of children”.
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