This Issue in Brief explores empirical evidence on the mental health and nutritional impacts of international labour migration on the left-behind children of migrant workers in Asia. Current evidence from Asian countries (Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam) shows both negative and positive influences from parental migration on the mental health and nutritional status of such children. Results from a nationally representative study from Sri Lanka, however, suggest that socio-emotional maladjustment and behavioural problems occur among children in the absence of a migrant worker parent, with two in every five shown to have mental disorders. In addition, left-behind children were shown to have higher levels of nutritional deficits compared to non-migrant children.
URL : http://publications.iom.int/system/files/pdf/mpi_issue_no_14.pdf