Children of International Migrants in Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines

This paper considers three groups of children affected by international migration: (i) children left behind by international labour migrants from the Philippines, Indonesia, and Thailand; (ii) children of Thai nationals in Japan; and (iii) children brought along by irregular migrants in Malaysia and Thailand. Based on the limited data available from published sources, the paper constructs preliminary estimates of numbers of children involved. It then synthesizes available evidence on problems and opportunities faced by the children, and on policies towards them. There are, however, important gaps in the available evidence. The paper identifies these gaps, and suggests ways in which they might be filled. The paper also makes policy recommendations. The growth of international migration in Southeast Asia has affected significant numbers of children. Some necessarily crude calculations suggest that 3-6 million children have been left behind by Filipino parents working overseas; the equivalent figure for Indonesia is something like one million, and for Thailand half a million. These numbers imply that roughly 10-20 per cent of Filipino children, and 2-3 per cent of Indonesian and Thai children, have a parent overseas. Based on good evidence from the Philippines, and scattered evidence from Indonesia and Thailand, it appears that (i) migration of parents improves the material conditions of the children left behind, which probably flows through to children’s health and schooling, and (ii) the social costs are strongly mitigated by the involvement of the extended family. In the Philippines, but less so in Indonesia and Thailand, governmental and non-governmental organizations already provide a range of services for children and migrants. Meanwhile, in Thailand, there are over 100,000 children of undocumented migrants from Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos. There are tens or perhaps hundreds of thousands of children of Indonesian migrants in Malaysia. Scattered evidence suggests that these children face much greater difficulties than the children left at home by Filipino, Indonesia, and Thai workers. The children brought along to Thailand and Malaysia appear to be significantly poorer than other children in their host countries, and to have limited access to social services. In Thailand, however, current efforts to register foreign workers and their dependants may lead to improved access, at least in the short term. A number of practical, low-cost policies to address the problems of children left behind by labour migrants from Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines have been suggested or implemented. If further research were to show that particular subgroups, such as those with both parents overseas, suffered special disadvantages, then high-cost interventions for these subgroups might be justified. However, more general high-cost interventions covering all children left behind by labour migrants are not justified on current evidence, since this evidence suggests that children do not appear, on average, to face greater difficulties than other children in the same societies. Attention should instead be focused on children brought along by undocumented migrants. Thailand’s current registration campaigns represent a major policy experiment, and the effects on children need to be carefully monitored. Regulations governing the entry and exit of migrants strongly influence family migration strategies and the ability of parents to maintain contact with their children. These affects need to be taken into account when regulations are designed. For policy purposes, the most important gaps in current knowledge about children left behind by labour migrants probably concern differences among children. For instance, there is still no conclusive evidence on whether children with absent mothers suffer more problems than children with absent fathers. A sensible first stage in filling this gap would be to exploit existing household survey data. Most published research dealing with children of undocumented migrants in Thailand consists of small-scale studies of highly disadvantaged groups such as sex workers. There have been few studies looking at mainstream migrants, or comparing migrants with the surrounding population. The best way to begin such research would be to exploit existing data from the Kanchanaburi Field Station. In Malaysia, a promising source on children of Indonesian migrants is ethnographic work carried out by Malaysian students. More generally, there is a need for research on how immigration regulations affect family migration strategies and the well-being of the children.