ARI Working Paper Series

Recent increases in the volume and diversity of transnational labour migration within and beyond Southeast Asia –  and in particular the feminisation of these movements –suggest that millions of left-behind children are growing up for part or all of their young lives in the absence of a migrant father, a migrant mother, or both. Gender-differentiated transnational migration is no doubt an increasingly significant driver of contemporary social transformation of the ‘family/household’ in sending communities, as clearly seen in its impact on changing arrangements and relationships of care around left-behind children. In this context, this paper pursues two aims. It first reviews the emerging academic literature on left-behind children of migrant parents using four organising themes: (a) impact on household structure and relationships within the transnational household; (b) impact on gender roles, identities and relations; (c) impact on intergenerational relations; and (d) impact on children’s physical health and psychological well-being. Second, the paper introduces a large-scale multi-method project investigating child health and migrant parents in Southeast Asia (CHAMPSEA) and ends by indicating how the project expects to contribute to a further understanding of the themes identified in the literature review.