Transnational families, left-behind children in South-East Europe

Abstract

Abstract The paper presents the notion of transnational families together with the relevant social aspects of the phenomenon with an emphasis on the situation of children left behind. Mostly based on research outside Europe a review of the literature is provided covering the possible impacts parental migration has on children remaining in the countries of origin. In the second section evidence from South- and Eastern Europe is presented to show the number as well as the main characteristics of left behind children in this region. Based on the limited number of data-resources we can estimate that in the late 2000s the number of children with at least one parent being absent for work outside the country exceeded 900,000 in the region discussed. Our analyses show that the number of left behind children is only loosely correlated with the extent of emigration from the country. We also find substantial variations in the patterns of parent-migration with mothers being much more likely to migrate from some countries than from others. Keywords: Migration, transnational family, left-behind children, South-East Europe