This special issue presents findings from a major research project investigating child health and migrant parents in South-East Asia (CHAMPSEA). Its aim is to contribute to the debate about a potential ‘crisis of care’ in the region as increasing numbers of parents migrate overseas for work, leaving their children behind (Parreñas, 2003). The project examines outcomes for two age groups of children in four study countries: Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. Here we focus on primary school-aged children of 9, 10 and 11 years both because this group tends to be neglected in the current literature on parental migration (but see Battistela and Conaco, 1998; ECMI/AOS-Manila et al., 2004) and because these pre-teens may be most at risk of any negative consequences of parental absence if they experience a care deficit. As the articles demonstrate, however, there is no simple distribution of risk and resilience between children living with both parents and the children of migrant parents. Rather there are important differences between countries and significant heterogeneity across multiple dimensions of health and well-being.