Migrant Children Research Articles

Continuity in child mental health from preschool years to adolescence in parental migration contexts: Evidence from a longitudinal study in Thailand

Our analysis employed the life-course approach to examine whether and how mental health during the preschool stage could predict mental health during adolescence in the Thai context, where migration of parents is common. We used the longitudinal data set of the 2008 and 2021 Child Health and Migrant Parents (CHAMPSEA)-Thailand. The baseline survey of CHAMSEA-Thailand gathered data from 1030 households that met the eligibility criteria, each having a child within one of the two specified age ranges (aged 3–5 or 9–11). Our analysis used the baseline data of children aged 3 to 5 years old who were 16 to 18 years old in the subsequent survey (N = 404). In both surveys, the mental health of children was measured using the SDQ (total difficulties scores), a global standard tool for assessing children's mental health. Parental migration measured whether the parent(s) were international migrants when the child was 3 to 5 years old at the baseline. Results showed a significant, positive impact of the SDQ total difficulties scores of children aged 3 to 5 on their SDQ total difficulties scores when they grew up to 16 to 18 years old. Findings also revealed that experiencing parental international migration during the early life stage led to adverse effects on individuals' mental health when they became adolescents.

Constructing Identities in a Diverse School Setting: From Finnish Learners to Multilingual Experts

ABSTRACT This article investigates how Shanaya and Zona, two 11-year-old multilingual migrant children, construct identities as knowledgeable, multilingual, and socially aware experts in a comprehensive school in Finland. I use ethnographic data that includes school observation and interviews to show how they find moments for overcoming disadvantageous circumstances through identity construction, and thus empower themselves. This empowerment seems to happen in informal situations, implying that there is little space for being something other than Finnish or Finnish-speaking elsewhere in the school. This study describes the children’s lived experience holistically by showing how linguistic, ethnic, and social identity categories intertwine and manifest in language use. It adds to our knowledge of the empowerment of young migrant children in school-related discourses outside of the anglophone world and calls for acknowledging children’s voices in developing education globally.

Family migration and well-being of Chinese migrant workers’ children

This article aims to explore the effects of parental migration on the well-being of children and how to adjust social cognitive well-being through the interrelations among family relations and social cognitive well-being indicators using structural equation modelling. Two modified social cognitive well-being models were tested in 1682 Chinese migrant workers' children to examine the pathways among social cognitive well-being and family relation characteristics. The modified models are based on the social cognitive well-being model and the characteristics of Chinese migrant workers' children. The results show that caregiver-child communication frequency, caregiver-child regulation, caregiver-child conflicts, caregiver-child trust and communication, and coactivity positively impact children’s social cognitive well-being. In contrast, caregiver-child alienation negatively influences children’s social cognitive factors through caregiver-child trust and communication. Additionally, this research revealed that family-related characteristics (caregiver-child regulation, caregiver-child coactivities, caregiver-child communication frequency, caregiver-child alienation, caregiver-child conflicts, and caregiver-child trust and communication) are interconnected with social cognitive well-being indicators (academic satisfaction, outcome expectations, goal progress, lifelong satisfaction, environmental support, positive affect, negative affect, and self-efficacy). This suggests that family migration and relationships with caregiver(s) can significantly affect the well-being of migrant workers' children.

Migration health ethics in Southeast Asia: a scoping review

Background Asia hosts the second-largest international migrant population in the world. In Southeast Asia (SEA), key types of migration are labour migration, forced migration, and environmental migration. This scoping review seeks to identify key themes and gaps in current research on the ethics of healthcare for mobile and marginalised populations in SEA, and the ethics of research involving these populations. Methods We performed a scoping review using three broad concepts: population (stateless population, migrants, refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced people), issues (healthcare and ethics), and context (11 countries in SEA). Three databases (PubMed, CINAHL, and Web of Science) were searched from 2000 until May 2023 over a period of four months (February 2023 to May 2023). Other relevant publications were identified through citation searches, and six bioethics journals were hand searched. All searches were conducted in English, and relevant publications were screened against the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Data were subsequently imported into NVivo 14, and thematic analysis was conducted. Results We identified 18 papers with substantial bioethical analysis. Ethical concepts that guide the analysis were ‘capability, agency, dignity’, ‘vulnerability’, ‘precarity, complicity, and structural violence’ (n=7). Ethical issues were discussed from the perspective of research ethics (n=9), clinical ethics (n=1) and public health ethics (n=1). All publications are from researchers based in Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia. Research gaps identified include the need for more research involving migrant children, research from migrant-sending countries, studies on quality of migrant healthcare, participatory health research, and research with internal migrants. Conclusions More empirical research is necessary to better understand the ethical issues that exist in the domains of research, clinical care, and public health. Critical examination of the interplay between migration, health and ethics with consideration of the diverse factors and contexts involved is crucial for the advancement of migration health ethics in SEA.

Swimming and water safety delivery for newly arrived Australians.

In Victoria, Australia, culturally and linguistically diverse communities are more than twice as likely to drown than their Australian-born counterparts. One explanation is the lack of feasible, community-led approaches to water safety and swimming education. A community engagement framework was used to develop and implement a 5-day pool program to teach swimming and water safety to newly arrived migrant children attending an English language school in Victoria. Socio-cultural needs of the predominantly Afghan cohort were incorporated through in-language consultation with parents who requested males and females be educated separately. Participants were assessed against Victorian aquatic competency benchmark standards at pre- and post-program, however, there was no expectation to achieve these competencies within the 5 days due to a lack of prior aquatic exposure. Independent and paired samples t-tests determined changes in skills, including by sex and number of lessons attended. Forty-one participants completed all assessments. Excluding lifesaving skills, there was a significant increase in total competency attainment overall from pre- to post-program (p < 0.001), and for each competency (p's ≤ 0.002)-predominantly knowledge and rescue skills. Improvements were mostly recorded among males, demonstrating that females may require more specialized support to achieve similar outcomes. Improvements in rescue skills and knowledge indicate the program's effectiveness in increasing newly arrived migrant children's awareness of, and exposure to, foundations of safe aquatic behaviours. Future programs tailored to newly arrived migrant communities should consider implementing water familiarization activities as a stepping stone to engagement with structured swimming and water safety education.

Peer effects of local students on the human capital of migrant children in middle schools: Evidence from China

The role of peer effects in children's human capital accumulation has attracted increased amounts of attention. Using data from a nationally representative survey of Chinese middle school students, this paper exploits random student-classroom assignment as a quasi-natural experiment to identify the peer effects of local students on the human capital of migrant children in Chinese middle schools. The results indicate that the peer effects of local students significantly improve the human capital of migrant children, including academic performance, cognitive abilities and non-cognitive abilities. Moreover, these peer effects can be further explained by improved parent-child relationships and parental expectations, increased student effort and expectations, and optimized teachers' teaching and school climate. Additionally, the peer effects from local students varies with migrant children's gender, Hukou, number of siblings and grade. Our research contributes to complementing the research field regarding peer effects and provides a new policy-oriented direction for the development of migrant children's human capital.

Supporting the educational integration of young people seeking asylum and refuge: examining good practices from Germany, Sweden and England

ABSTRACT The educational integration of Newly Arrived Migrant and Refugee (NAMR) children and youth in a host country is complex. It requires educational systems responding to their diverse needs. Some of these needs are exacerbated by NAMR young people and their families’ limited understanding of the host country’s policies, structures, and procedures. Amidst these complexities, policy makers, practitioners, and other stakeholders strive for guidance in developing effective interventions that are transferable across different settings. This paper builds on the good practices that were identified and exchanged between seven partnering countries from Europe and the UK in 2017–18 as part of SIRIUS network’s RefuEdu project. Researchers, policymakers, and practitioners shared good practices that were grounded in their knowledge, experience, and examples. A set of core principles and individual sets of good practices are highlighted with action steps from the contexts of Germany, Sweden and England (UK). This may assist policy makers and practitioners in comprehending the challenges and opportunities within the educational integration of NAMR children and youth. The implications are for strengthening their holistic integration alongside positive educational experiences and advancing further research.

Reclaiming the Border Narrative: Refugee Children as Victim, Witness, and Agent in Valeria Luiselli’s Lost Children Archive

Valeria Luiselli’s 2019 novel Lost Children Archive records and reimagines visa-less migrant children’s encounters with hostile borders, while also challenging the logic and legality of border policy, a set of neocolonial practices that allows former colonial powers to continue their control over the mobility of bodies and epistemologies from the Global South. In an interview with The New Yorker about her novel, Luiselli commented on the role of narrative in conceptualizing and achieving justice when the law fails to deliver or denies justice: “Perhaps the only way to grant any justice—were that even possible—is by hearing and recording those stories over and over again so that they come back, always, to haunt and shame us.” 1 Luiselli thus highlights not only the power of storytelling in delivering justice otherwise denied, but also its ability to generate a moral, emotional, and intellectual response in its audience. This paper analyzes how Luiselli employs “factional” 2 narrative to “haunt and shame us,” question existing border policies, and grant authorial and narrative justice in the absence of institutional or legal justice through the extended metaphor of children on the move. I introduce the concept of “tripartite subjectivity” in analyzing how Luiselli’s factional children are, on the one hand, victims of and witnesses to the violence perpetrated by border laws, and, on the other hand, agents who challenge and reinterpret hostile borders, transforming the static border into a site of epistemic rupture. The tripartite subjectivity of Luiselli’s lost children provide a model via which characters who have been deprived of what Thomas Nail calls “socially determined status” (and thereby are rejected border access due to their inability to contribute to the state’s kinopolitical expansion) reclaim both fictional and epistemological borders through a reverse kinopolitics of what I term “bordered expansion by archive.”

Analyzing Media Coverage Trends on Undocumented Migrant Children in South Korea

Objectives: This study examined the impact of media coverage on the public perceptions of undocumented migrant children in South Korea, highlighting their societal exclusion due to their undocumented status. Thise research explores how media shapes the awareness of these vulnerable minors, which is crucial for both their development and societal progress.Methods: We analyzed 302 articles from BIGKinds, a news service of the Korea Press Foundation, published from 1990 to 2023. These articles contained terms related to ‘undocumented migrant children,’ totaling 69,278 keywords. The analysis was conducted using R 4.3.1 with packages such as wordcloud2 and ggplot2 to assess keyword frequency and trends over the decades.Results: From the analysis, 69,240 keywords were identified, with the most common being “children, arrest, parents, foreigner, illegal, resident, rights, protection, birth, offspring, support, school”. Media trends have evolved, with an overall increase in coverage, particularly during significant societal events.Conclusion: Media portrayals have shifted from viewing these children merely as dependents of foreign workers to recognizing them as individuals. Residency remained a persistent theme, highlighting it as an unresolved issue. This study highlights the critical role of the media in informing the public about marginalized individuals and influencing societal engagement and perceptions.

The Processes of Insertion and Sociability of Haitian Migrant Children in Early Childhood Education

The number of children, both accompanied and unaccompanied, currently crossing international borders in search of humanitarian refuge, has increased significantly in the last few decades of the Twenty-first Century. In Brazil, the presence of Haitian migrant children cannot be ignored, as, in addition to the lack of public policies, they are also victims of racism and xenophobia. Schools face a massive impact of migration, which alters their social structure. Often, the school community is not adequately prepared to cater for these children, as is the case with some schools in the Brazilian municipality of Balneário Camboriú. This research, which is linked to the Postgraduate Program in Education at the University of Vale do Itajaí, initially aims to investigate how Haitian migrant children interact with each other, and with Brazilian children, in two early childhood education schools in Balneário Camboriú. It also intends to investigate, based on the presence of Haitian migrant children, the processes of subjection or transgression of expressions of whiteness as a practice of power and representation of white identity, and to analyze the Municipality’s Curricular Proposal regarding Ethnic-Racial Education. The study is based on the Sociology of Childhood, Racial Studies, and Migration. The research is qualitative and is based on a literature review in two databases. The studies analyzed indicate that one reason for the lack of interest and knowledge about ethnic-racial diversity issues in schools is the existing gap in this theme in both initial and continuing teacher education.

Conceptualising “the more-than-migrant child”

PurposeUsing a feminist, post-structural and posthuman theoretical framing the paper argues for elevating the complexity of conceptions of migrant children’s engagements with and contributions to their own lives.Design/methodology/approachThis conceptual paper responds to contemporary concerns with research involving migrant children and childhoods in an Australian context. With researchers and teachers’ attention being drawn to enhancing the cultural wellbeing, identity and belonging of young children, it asks: who is “the migrant child”? In our response to this question, we disrupt expectations of simplistic, homogeneous views of children of migrant families or backgrounds, including confronting notions such as vulnerability, neediness and deficit.FindingsPotential ways in which “the migrant child” is implicated by diverse social, environmental and political factors underlie the many ways in which children might exercise their autonomy and participation. In Australia, contemporary migration remains clouded by such policies as the only relatively recently overturned “White Australia” policy and so-called “boat turnbacks”, whilst, and especially in post-Covid times, Australian society simultaneously depends on migrant workers in many areas of employment. At the same time, Australia seems to openly celebrate what is seen as “successful” multiculturalism.Originality/valueThese multiple perspectives offer a deeply concerning social and policy environment for researchers and educationalists. It is in this context that we raise questions and speculate towards potential conceptualisations of “the migrant child” which recognise, rather than negate, the powers and insights arising from the child’s experiential, relational and deeply entangled onto-epistemological perspective/s.

Are migrants a threat? Migrant children and human capital investments among local households in urban China

The educational spillovers of migrant children in receiving areas have drawn widespread attention in countries undergoing massive internal migration. Yet few studies have explored how migrant students affect the decision-making process of native households. This study examines the effects and underlying mechanisms of internal migrant children on human capital investments among local households in urban China. Leveraging the random student-classroom assignment within middle schools, we find that migrant peer composition has a significant positive impact on local households’ spending on their children’s education, especially out-of-school education expenditure. These positive effects are more pronounced among local students who are male, in the ninth grade, and come from high socioeconomic status families. The results of our mechanism analysis suggest that the presence of migrant children leads local parents to overestimate their children’s academic performance and raises concerns about potential adverse effects on their children’s educational outcomes. However, we have not found compelling evidence indicating that migrant classmates significantly affect local students’ learning environment, emotional well-being, and actual academic achievements. Our study contributes to the ongoing debate on the educational inclusion of internal migrant children in China and similar contexts, highlighting the importance of addressing the biased beliefs of local households over migrants.

"I had no idea there were psychiatric clinics for children": A qualitative study of how migrant parents reach Swedish mental health services for their children.

Migrant children have repeatedly been shown to underutilize psychiatric services and to face barriers to care, yet few studies have examined the experience of migrant parents who are successful in their help-seeking efforts for their children's mental health. The aim of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of facilitators and obstacles to reaching care among migrant parents in contact with child psychiatric services. We explored how migrant parents in Stockholm, Sweden, experienced the process of reaching child mental health services. Participants were recruited from out-patient mental health clinics. Ten in-depth interviews were conducted; qualitative analysis of transcripts was undertaken using thematic content analysis. Parents described a desire to reach services but difficulties doing so on their own. We identified a strong dependence on referring agents, such as schools and child health centers, for parents to gain contact. Informants expressed a high degree of trust toward these agents. Contrary to previous studies, stigma was not described as an obstacle to help-seeking but was recognized by informants as a potential barrier to care had they not emigrated. Although participants in our study had differing educational backgrounds and residency times in Sweden, a common experience of reliance on others for reaching services was evident in the data. Our findings highlight the role of referring agents as bridging contacts between different welfare services. Understanding the specific local resources and services that are available to migrant parents, and strengthening these across different sectors, could potentially help reduce barriers to care.

Heterogeneous peer effects under endogenous selection: An application to local and migrant children in elementary schools in Shanghai

This paper develops a model that allows for heterogenous contemporaneous peer effects among different types of agents who are endogenously selected into different peer groups. We apply our approach to migrant and local students in Shanghai, where local students all go to public schools, but migrant students are endogenously selected into either public schools or lower-quality private schools. The results suggest large contemporaneous peer effects among all student groups. We conduct policy experiments to examine the effect of transferring migrant students from private schools to public schools, and show that peer effect can be substantially more important than the school effect.

Community-based education and child development work for migrant children in China: a multi-dimensional citizenship approach

The primary focus of this article is to investigate the impact of community-based efforts to provide education and child development programs and service in China’s migrant communities, specifically as it pertains to the prospects of addressing sociocultural and socioeconomic inequalities in education and child development in urban China. Building on frameworks of dimensions of citizenship, this article examines the work of migrant educator-activists who provide community-based education and child development service in Beijing’s migrant communities. Their efforts to address inequalities in child development for migrant children enrich the understanding of citizenship in the Chinese context.

Unsociability and social adjustment in Chinese preschool migrant children: the moderating role of receptive vocabulary.

Peer relationships play an indispensable role in the social, emotional, and cognitive development of children. However, children exhibiting social withdrawal, such as unsociability, may face challenges in social adjustment. In collectivistic cultures like China, unsociability may be perceived negatively, aligning poorly with collective norms. The objective of the present investigation was to examine the associations between unsociability, receptive vocabulary, and indicators of social adjustment in a cohort of young migrant children residing in urban regions of mainland China. The study mainly aimed to investigate the potential moderating influence of receptive language on these associations. The study involved 148 young children (82 boys, 66 girls, Mage = 62.32 months, SD = 6.76) enrolled in preschools or kindergartens in Shanghai, People's Republic of China. Multiple sources of assessment were utilized, encompassing evaluations from mothers (about child unsociability), teacher (assessing social adjustment), and standardized tests (measuring receptive vocabulary). The results indicated that the relations between unsociability and peer exclusion were more positive among children with lower levels of receptive vocabulary but not significant for children with higher levels of receptive vocabulary. Similarly, the relations between unsociability and peer exclusion were more negative among children with lower levels of receptive vocabulary but not significant for children with higher levels of receptive vocabulary. Thus, this study informs us about how receptive vocabulary is jointly associated with unsociable children's development. As well, the findings highlight the importance of considering the meaning and implication of unsociability in Chinese culture.

The effect of family economic capital on the cognitive ability of migrant children in China

The scale of migrant populations and the prevalence of family-based migration in China have sparked concerns about migrant children. After moving to the city, compared to loacl children, migrant children are at a disadvantage in terms of access to external educational resources and internal family education. It is thus of great academic and practical importance to explore the factors affecting the cognitive abilities of migrant children. Using the CFPS database in 2014, 2016, and 2018, this study investigates the effects and mechanisms of family economic capital on the cognitive ability of migrant children. The findings show that family economic capital greatly enhances the Chinese and Math performance of migrant children and that there is heterogeneity in the effect of family economic capital on the cognitive ability of migrant children attending key schools and non-key schools. In addition, the mediating effect model shows that family economic capital mainly influences the Chinese and Math scores of migrant children through mediating variables such as family education expenditure and parental involvement. At the same time, the results of the hierarchical linear model show that the regional education level has a significantly positive moderating effect on family education expenditure, while the moderating effect on parental involvement is not significant. Therefore, assisting migrant families to increase their financial resources, family educational expenditure, and family communication can contribute to their children's human capital development.

The complex ecologies of migrant children with special educational needs: Practitioner perspectives of information needs and implications for education

AbstractThis paper presents findings from a series of focus group interviews with three groups of professionals in England, in the period immediately preceding the COVID‐19 global pandemic, on the information needed by professionals to support migrant children with special educational needs (SEN) in the English education system. The data gathered were subjected to a thematic analysis revealing four themes: (1) Information about the needs of migrant children with SEN, (2) Information about parents and families, (3) Information about strategies to support migrant children with SEN, (4) The importance of clear and understandable information. The findings emphasise that when information is sought about migrant children with SEN, professionals must account for and understand the different experiences that the children and their families have experienced across different educational systems and the different educational ecologies associated with migration. Ecological theory helps identify potential tensions at different levels between and within different ecologies, but also suggests ways in which these may be bridged by information gathering, trust and relationship building within and across ecologies.

Unaccompanied Migrant Children in US Government Custody: 2014–2023

Between October 1, 2014, and March 1, 2023, the US Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) took custody of 568,890 unaccompanied migrant children. Drawing on a unique dataset that ORR produced in response to Freedom of Information Act requests and litigation, we provide the first comprehensive, long-term demographic study of the population of unaccompanied migrant children while in ORR custody. Our analysis reveals the children's differential treatment and experiences across time and demographic characteristics. We contextualize ORR's treatment of the children in its custody by identifying legal standards governing their care. We also examine how specific instances of legal, political, and social change in the United States correlate with fluctuations in the origin-based demographics of unaccompanied migrant children seeking refuge in the United States. Results highlight the differential treatment and intense uncertainty that unaccompanied migrant children face in the United States based on their age, gender, country and region of origin, ORR program placements, and discharge types.

Hidden curriculum: Voices of Chinese rural migrant children

AbstractUnited Nations Sustainable Development Goal 10 emphasises the need to ‘reduce inequality within and among countries.’ In line with this goal, this study focuses on the educational experiences of five rural migrant children from an urban village in China. Using the concept of hidden curriculum (HC), the study explores whether these children have encountered social exclusion in their schools. Through interviews and observations, the study shows that the HC is not easily discernible but subtly influences students, teachers, and parents, resulting in a certain degree of social exclusion within various educational facets. Reducing inequalities through education presents significant challenges, requiring sustained efforts.