According to a study presented at the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef)-Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) Seminar Series on Public Policies and the Rights of Children, OFWs have devoted less time and money to their children when they reach the ages of 13 to 16.

Asia-Pacific Policy Center (APPC) vice president and executive director Rosemarie Edillon presented the study titled “The Effects of Parent’s Migration on the Rights of Children Left Behind” last February 21.

Edillon said that children given less care engage in “unwarranted acts” like premarital sex resulting in teenage pregnancies, drug taking and fall prey to physical or sexual abuse.

Based on an index, the study plotted the self-rated scores of both OFW and non-OFW children on the following: overall emotional state, relationship with parent OFWs, relationship with siblings, relationship with other members of the household, health status, performance in school, security for the future, participation in extracurricular activities and participation in family decision-making.

Edillon said that at the onset, at ages six to eight, OFW children are better off than children of non-OFWs but as the age progresses, more and more OFW children fell below the general preference of their age group and category—whether OFW or non-OFW.

“Many children of OFWs aged 13 to 16 appear to be worse off than children of non-OFWs of the same age. Some receive less-than-average money inputs but all receive less-than-average adult attention,” the study said.

“This can be explained by the fact that, on the average, there are fewer adults but still a substantial number of children in these households. This is in complete contrast to the preference of children in this age group, where they require more adult attention [AA] and more budget inputs than children in the other age groups,” the study stated.

Scalabrini Migration Center (SMC) research director Dr. Maruja Asis said OFW children in this age group should be monitored closely. She explained that older children might require more time because most of them already share in household responsibilities.

Asis said that in cases where a parent or both parents go abroad to work, the eldest usually assumes the part of the absent parent/s and shares family responsibilities with older relatives like grandparents, aunts or uncles.

The panganay syndrome

This was supported by Aurora Javate-de Dios, executive director of the Women and Gender Institute of Miriam College. She pointed out that this is especially prevalent among female firstborns who assume the caregiving responsibilities of mothers who become OFWs.

De Dios even said that migration, whether international or regional, is the engine of the global-care chain.

This starts at the provincial level where firstborns become poor substitutes for their mothers, who leave the province to go to big cities like Manila to work for another motherless family – because the mother is abroad to care for foreigners’ children, she said.

“OFW mothers take away 80 percent of care-giving factors when they leave,” de Dios said.

Further, the study showed that only 29 percent of children included in the study said they are better off than other children are in the same age group in terms of their family life and their participation in family decisions.

The study also showed that 39 percent said they are better off in their future; 40 percent said they are accepted by their peers; 42 percent said they are better off in terms of their health; 44 percent said they are better off in terms of extracurricular activities, while more than half, or 53 percent, said they are better off in terms of education.

Address the tradeoffs

The study recommended that stakeholders, including the community and the church, should become more involved in the development of these children. Stakeholders, the study said, should help improve the communication between OFWs and their children.

The government is also urged to promote health-seeking behavior among parents. This can be done by requiring them to submit a medical certificate in behalf of their children before they are admitted in schools.

The study also said that parents must not always equate their presence with material things.

The study asked that parents or relatives who stay with the children must be educated regarding the unique circumstances the children are in. Edillon said that based on Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) data, there are 8.23 million Filipinos abroad in 2006. This is broken down into 3.6 million permanent migrants, 3.3 million temporary migrants, and around 0.37 million “irregular” migrants.

Unicef deputy country representative Colin Davis said around 56 percent of migrants are married, based on 2000 data. If there are 1 million female and 1 million male OFWs abroad who are married, and assuming an average of three children per household, there are six million children left behind.

“Children bear the brunt of migration,” Davies said, “[that’s why] the social costs of migration must be examined and that policies must be formulated to overcome the negative effects of migration. We need to address the tradeoffs.”