In an interview with GMA News Online on Tuesday, UNICEF Deputy Representative Abdul Alim said the issue must be seen “in balance” because overseas work does enable parents to provide well for their children.
“At any given time, [having one or both parents overseas] is not a very healthy situation for a child. But of course, the family has its [needs and] concerns and you know it’s going to be difficult for children to go to school if the parents are not earning,” he said at the sidelines of the launch of UNICEF’s State of the World’s Children 2012 report.
Alim, however, added that “from the UNICEF’s perspective, it is important for both parents to be around the child, to make sure that the child gets the best circumstances to grow up in.”
He also said the government “should think about how to support” OFW families through programs like day-care facilities and special social workers “for those who do not have their parents, especially their mothers, at home.”
“The mother is the first focus of attention, so I would think that if the mother is away, it’s going to be very difficult for a child,” he said.
Migration’s effects on children
Focusing on various conditions of children in the urban environment, this year’s State of the World’s Children report highlighted migration as one of the emerging challenges, saying that kids are affected by this in different ways such as relocation and documentation dilemmas.
It said children of migrant workers who are also in the host countries may find it difficult to live there, especially if their parents are undocumented.
“Migrants, especially those without documents, may be denied public services, social protection, and even emergency health care,” it said. “Rather than making such essentials as schooling available to migrant families, these requirements often have the effect of denying such services to those not registered, especially where the process or cost of registration is prohibitive.”
It added: “Children born to migrant parents may end up stateless and unable to enjoy the rights of citizenship.”
‘Having been abandoned’
However, the OFW families’ situation show another side of this challenge, where children are “affected” by migration “even when they do not move.”
A separate situation analysis presented by the UNICEF in 2010 listed children of Filipino migrant workers as those who are “without or at risk of losing parental care,” saying that they “regard themselves as having been abandoned by their parents,” which make many of them “resentful.”
“Parents seek to compensate their absence through impersonal information and communication technologies, leaving emotional bonds affected,” it said. “Furthermore, parents miss out on the formation and development of their growing children’s values which affect their social behavior.”
The analysis also noted the problems faced by these children, including:
- the difficulty adjusting to the absence of a mother after establishing an affection for her (applicable especially for kids aged six to 16 years old);
- poor social adjustment;
- impeded psychological development;
- lack of motivation among children, resulting in poor performance or dropping out of schools; and
- increased vulnerability to drugs and substance abuse.
“Oftentimes, money sent by the parents is insufficient, especially for larger households, and does not necessarily improve the wellbeing of the family,” the analysis read, adding that many of OFW children are fixed on following their parents’ footsteps “without sufficiently investing in their own capacities and competencies.”
The State of the World’s Children report, however, cited a 1998 study of primary school children of Filipino migrants, saying that “with sufficient care from the extended family, migration on the part of parents need not prove detrimental to child development.”
Source: GMA News
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