Children of International Migrants in Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines: A Review of Evidence and Policies
Author(s): J. Bryant
This paper considers three groups of children affected by international migration: (1) children left behind by international labour migrants from the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand; (2) children of Thai nationals in Japan; and (3) children brought along by irregular migrants in Malaysia and Thailand. The study starts with some background information on the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand by looking at patterns of child migration, effects on children's welfare, policies towards migrants' children of as well as their policy implications. For example, based on evidence from the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand, it appears that (1) the migration of parents improves the material conditions of the children left behind, which probably trickles down to children's health and schooling and (2) the social costs are strongly mitigated by the involvement of the extended family. In contrast, the paper shows that there are thousands of children of Indonesian migrants in Malaysia that face much greater difficulties than the children left at home by the Filipino, Indonesia, and Thai workers. The paper concludes that despite existing studies on various aspects of child migration in the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia, more studies have to be conducted which include analyses of administrative data, existing surveys and further review of existing research literature and qualitative data.