Children Left Behind by Labour Migration’ is a 30-month action that aims to support the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine in improving their child protection frameworks and policies regarding migration and mobility, with a focus on the social and legal impacts of labour migration on transnational families. The project addresses the situation of children left behind (CLB) as a result of their parents leaving abroad for work, and approaches this issue from the perspective of children’s rights and the ways in which these rights are created, observed and enforced in a transnational family context. Ensuring the rights of children is one of the strategic directions of improving the activities of the state, to promote and ensure human rights and freedoms.
Labour migration is a widespread phenomenon in Eastern European countries. Most migrant families whose members participated in the field-research conducted by CASTLE come from communities where it is very common for households to have at least one adult abroad for work. As a result, local communities perceive migration as a familiar phenomenon, and the absence of at least one parent in families with children is a frequent occurrence.
Thanks to the contributions of the research teams of CASTLE academic partners, namely the Babeș-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania, the Academy of Economic Studies of Moldova and the Ukrainian Institute for Social Research after Olexandr Yaremenko, the Policy brief was prepared and includes the issue of CLB by labor migration and a concise discussion of the preliminary findings of research conducted within the CASTLE action. The description of research results is followed by a list of evidence-based public policy recommendations.
You can read the full version of the Policy brief below.
