IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v13y2016i2p218-d63847.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

What Effect Does International Migration Have on the Nutritional Status and Child Care Practices of Children Left Behind?

Author

Listed:
  • Renuka Jayatissa

    (Department of Nutrition, Medical Research Institute, Ministry of Health, Colombo 00800, Sri Lanka)

  • Kolitha Wickramage

    (Migration Health Division, International Organization for Migration (IOM), Headquarters, Geneva 1200, Switzerland)

Abstract

Despite an increasing trend in labour migration and economic dependence on foreign migrant workers in Sri Lanka, very little is known about the child care and nutritional status of “children left behind”. The aim of this study was to examine the factors influencing the nutritional status and care practices of children left behind. A sample of 321 children, 6–59 months old of international migrant workers from a cross-sectional nationally represented study were included. Care practices were assessed using ten caregiving behaviours on personal hygiene, feeding, and use of health services. Results revealed the prevalence of stunting, wasting and underweight to be 11.6, 18.2 and 24.0 percent, respectively. Father being a migrant worker has a positive effect on childcare practices and birthweight of the child. This study indicates that undernutrition remains a major concern, particularly in the poorest households where the mother is a migrant worker, also each additional 100 g increase in the birthweight of a child in a migrant household, decreases the probability of being wasted, stunted and underweight by 6%, 8% and 23% respectively. In depth study is needed to understand how labour migration affects household level outcomes related to child nutrition and childcare in order to build skills and capacities of migrant families.

Suggested Citation

  • Renuka Jayatissa & Kolitha Wickramage, 2016. "What Effect Does International Migration Have on the Nutritional Status and Child Care Practices of Children Left Behind?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-10, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:13:y:2016:i:2:p:218-:d:63847
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/2/218/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/2/218/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Azzarri, Carlo & Zezza, Alberto, 2011. "International migration and nutritional outcomes in Tajikistan," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 54-70, February.
    2. United Nations (UN), 2016. "International Migration and Development," Working Papers id:11048, eSocialSciences.
    3. David J. McKenzie & Nicole Hildebrandt, 2005. "The Effects of Migration on Child Health in Mexico," Economía Journal, The Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association - LACEA, vol. 0(Fall 2005), pages 257-289, August.
    4. Cameron, Michael P. & Lim, Steven, 2007. "Household resources, household composition, and child nutritional outcomes," 2007 Conference (51st), February 13-16, 2007, Queenstown, New Zealand 10371, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.
    5. Ruel, Marie T. & Arimond, Mary, 2003. "Measuring childcare practices," Food policy reviews 6, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Justina Račaitė & Jutta Lindert & Khatia Antia & Volker Winkler & Rita Sketerskienė & Marija Jakubauskienė & Linda Wulkau & Genė Šurkienė, 2021. "Parent Emigration, Physical Health and Related Risk and Preventive Factors of Children Left Behind: A Systematic Review of Literature," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(3), pages 1-14, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Amy Damon & Devon Kristiansen, 2014. "Childhood obesity in Mexico: the effect of international migration," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 45(6), pages 711-727, November.
    2. Rosemary E. Isoto & David S. Kraybill, 2017. "Remittances and household nutrition: evidence from rural Kilimanjaro in Tanzania," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 9(2), pages 239-253, April.
    3. Mora-Rivera, Jorge & van Gameren, Edwin, 2021. "The impact of remittances on food insecurity: Evidence from Mexico," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    4. Morgan, Peter J. & Trinh, Long Q., 2018. "Heterogeneous Effects of Migration on Child Welfare: Empirical Evidence from Viet Nam," ADBI Working Papers 835, Asian Development Bank Institute.
    5. Viet Nguyen, Cuong, 2016. "Does parental migration really benefit left-behind children? Comparative evidence from Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 230-239.
    6. Kriti Vikram, 2023. "Timing and Frequency of Fathers’ Migration and Nutritional Status of Left-Behind Children in India: A Life Course Approach," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 42(1), pages 1-29, February.
    7. Lucia Rizzica, 2018. "When the Cat’s Away The Effects of Spousal Migration on Investments on Children," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 32(1), pages 85-108.
    8. Macours, Karen & Vakis, Renos, 2010. "Seasonal Migration and Early Childhood Development," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 857-869, June.
    9. Irene Mosca & Alan Barrett, 2016. "The impact of adult child emigration on the mental health of older parents," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 29(3), pages 687-719, July.
    10. Michael Lokshin & Mikhail Bontch‐Osmolovski & Elena Glinskaya, 2010. "Work‐Related Migration and Poverty Reduction in Nepal," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(2), pages 323-332, May.
    11. Karl McShane, 2017. "Getting Used to Diversity? Immigration and Trust in Sweden," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 37(3), pages 1895-1910.
    12. Aggarwal, Reena & Demirgüç-Kunt, Asli & Pería, Maria Soledad Martínez, 2011. "Do remittances promote financial development?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(2), pages 255-264, November.
    13. Andaleeb Rahman & Sumit Mishra, 2020. "Does Non-farm Income Affect Food Security? Evidence from India," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(6), pages 1190-1209, June.
    14. Petreski Marjan & Petreski Blagica & Tumanoska Despina & Narazani Edlira & Kazazi Fatush & Ognjanov Galjina & Jankovic Irena & Mustafa Arben & Kochovska Tereza, 2017. "The Size and Effects of Emigration and Remittances in the Western Balkans. A Forecasting Based on a Delphi Process," Südosteuropa. Journal of Politics and Society, De Gruyter, vol. 65(4), pages 679-695, December.
    15. Tamar Khitarishvili, 2016. "Gender Dimensions of Inequality in the Countries of Central Asia, South Caucasus, and Western CIS," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_858, Levy Economics Institute.
    16. Ralitza Dimova & Fran�ois-Charles Wolff, 2015. "Remittances and Chain Migration: Longitudinal Evidence from Bosnia and Herzegovina," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(5), pages 554-568, May.
    17. Tiwari, Smriti, 2021. "Do macroeconomic fluctuations at destination matter in determining migrants’ return decisions?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    18. Finagnon Antoine Dedewanou & Rolande C. B. Kpekou Tossou, 2022. "Remittances and agricultural productivity in Burkina Faso," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 44(3), pages 1573-1590, September.
    19. Nkechi S. Owoo, 2021. "Demographic considerations and food security in Nigeria," Journal of Social and Economic Development, Springer;Institute for Social and Economic Change, vol. 23(1), pages 128-167, June.
    20. Artjoms Ivlevs & Roswitha M. King, 2014. "Emigration, remittances and corruption experience of those staying behind," Working Papers 20141411, Department of Accounting, Economics and Finance, Bristol Business School, University of the West of England, Bristol.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:13:y:2016:i:2:p:218-:d:63847. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.