Differentiated childhoods: impacts of rural labor migration on left-behind children in China

This article draws on data from research that includes 400 children who lived separately from their migrant parents in 10 rural communities in China, to explore the deep impacts of rural parents' migration on the care-giving and nurturing of children left behind. It shows that parent migration has brought about multiple impacts, mostly negative, on the lives of children, such as increased workloads, little study tutoring and supervision, and above all the unmet needs of parental affection. Children's basic daily care and personal safety could become problematic since surrogate caregivers, mostly elderly, are usually exhausted with livelihood maintenance. With illumination on the family dysfunction in children's development due to migration-induced family separation, this article highlights the social cost to rural families of parental migration. Urbanization in developing countries is obtained at the expense of rural migrants and their families, especially children left behind. Further attention is required to improve left-behind children's well being within split family structures and interregional migration.     

生育与养育：女性农民工子女随迁的工资惩罚——基于核心家庭样本的分析

在农民工群体规模不断增长且家庭化迁移趋势日益凸显的背景下,妥善解决子女随迁带来的系列问题愈发重要。本研究聚焦子女随迁造成的女性农民工工资收入降低问题,基于母职工资惩罚理论,将女性农民工群体承担母职角色造成的工资惩罚分为生育惩罚与养育惩罚,利用2018年流动人口动态监测数据进行检验。研究发现：生育惩罚会降低女性农民工工资的2.4%,养育惩罚会显著降低女性农民工工资收入的11.0%;在一孩家庭中,幼儿园年龄段的子女随迁对新生代受教育程度较低的女性农民工造成的养育惩罚最为严重;在二孩家庭中,婴幼儿年龄段的子女随迁对新生代受过高等教育的女性农民工造成的养育惩罚最为严重,且二孩家庭婴幼儿年龄段的子女随迁对工资造成的负向影响是独生子女家庭同年龄段子女随迁的4倍多。研究建议,要加强二孩家庭的托育服务供给,如提供在农民工家庭支付能力内的日间照料、托管、家政等服务,进一步释放流动人口带来的劳动力资源,促进劳动力市场的性别平等。     

The Effects of Single Parenthood on Educational Aspiration: A Comparative Study of Children in the United Kingdom and Hong Kong

Using data collected by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development's Program for International Student Assessment in 2003, this study examines the gap in the educational aspirations of children from single-parent families and two-parent families in the United Kingdom (UK) and Hong Kong. Consistent with previous research on the relationship between cultural orientation and academic motivation, our analysis shows that children in the UK have statistically significant lower levels of educational aspiration than those in Hong Kong. Moreover, children from single-parent families in the UK and Hong Kong are found to have statistically significant lower levels of educational aspiration than those from two-parent families. Further analyses indicate that family capital and school experience are important factors for understanding the negative effects of single parenthood. Finally, we observe that single parenthood has a less negative effect on educational aspiration in the UK than it does in Hong Kong, which can be explained by differences in government family policy and family capital between the two regions. Based on the outcomes from the current analysis, we put forward several policy and service recommendations for improving children's educational aspiration and enhancing family well-being.     

Rural women migrant returnees in contemporary China

This essay focuses on the experiences of female returnees in rural–urban migration in contemporary China. Based on in-depth interviews with women migrants, returnees, their family members, friends and fellow villagers in both sending and receiving areas, the research examines rural migrant women's return migration process. It investigates rural migrant women's decision-making in the process, the ways women returnees construct their lives in the countryside, their identity negotiation as returnees and the impact of patriarchy on women's experiences of the return and resettlement process. The author argues that despite women's active involvement in migration and the ‘empowerment and agency’ gained through migration, the patriarchal power relations within rural households remain intact and continue to shape rural female returnees' life in their villages.     

Everyday worlds of young refugees in London

This article examines the everyday lives of a sample of young refugees living in London, based on a study of the social roles and social networks of refugee children undertaken under the ESRC Children 5–16 Programme. It draws on findings from a survey of refugee and non-refugee children aged between 11 and 14 in two London schools, complemented by data from in-depth interviews with refugee children. The article focuses on the children's responsibilities towards home and family, friendships, and leisure activities. It highlights the experiences of the refugee children in the sample, and explores some gender differences between the social lives of refugee boys and girls, and between the lives of refugee children and those of their non-refugee peers.     

children's imaginings and narratives: inhabiting complexity

Drawing on two studies of children aged between seven and 10 years this article explores their narratives of themselves, families, sibling and peer relationships. Their narratives were full of push-pull and contradictory processes. The children moved towards knowledge as well as a disavowal of ‘reality’ about their families and material conditions. Critically they revealed profound wishes for something better alongside the knowledge that ‘this is it’. This article focuses on theorizing children's understandings of and relationships to social and material life in order to argue that meanings matter and meanings have matter. Narratives are social in two critical ways: they involve reaching out and connecting with others, and narratives are constructed within and through the social sphere, while simultaneously they are shot through with conscious and unconscious fantasies. Children are moving towards being in a complex – engaged in and inhabiting many relationships.     

Family and Community Determinants of Educational Attainment in Mexico

Using hierarchical linear modeling, this article investigates the effect of gender, parental capital, and community context on school-age children's educational attainment in Mexico. Data come from the Mexican Migration Project; this study investigates the contribution of various micro- and macro-level determinants. To measure schooling, the amount of education completed by two different age groups of children in Mexico was examined. In sum, male respondents were found to attain fewer years of education than females, contrary to the gender-effect model. But the study lends firm support to the parental capital model which stresses the significance of parental education and household wealth. The community context argument was marginally upheld for younger respondents but exerted a more meaningful impact on older respondents, signaling the need to emphasize age and community ecological factors in assessing educational outcomes in Mexico.     

Alleging Psychological Impairment of the Accuser to Defend Oneself Against a Child Abuse Allegation:

This paper discusses a group of divorced or separated parents who are in conflict over custody and/or visitation with their children. In each case, a mother alleges that the father has been sexually or physically abusive to the couple's children, and the father alleges that the mother's own abuse during childhood produced a psychiatric disturbance that forms the basis for her pathological need to project accusations of abuse onto him. The authors found that a satisfactory analysis of the competing parental allegations and a recommendation about the children's subsequent guardianship could not be developed until they explored the hypothesis that wife battering had contributed to the family's distressing circumstances.     

The Impact of Migration upon Family Life and Gender Relations: the case of South Asian seafarers,c.1900–50

The article discusses the familial relationships of South Asian seafarers (commonly known as Lascars) in both South Asia and Britain. It explores how the family was both involved in and affected by their migration. The impact of lengthy absences caused by long voyages and migration to Britain upon families in the sending countries is considered. In particular, the impact upon intra-family dynamics and gender relations is investigated. The article also explores the role of the family in the migration and questions whether this disrupted family life. Finally, South Asian seafarers' marital relationships and family lives in Britain are reconsidered. The article demonstrates the shortcomings of viewing these relationships from a functionalist perspective alone.     

On the politics of production: A comment on ‘peasants and politics’ by Eric Hobsbawn

This article examines how poor rural families in India cope with the food insecurity associated with seasonal troughs in the agricultural production cycle, and with calamities such as drought and famine; the effectiveness of the coping mechanisms they adopt; the intra‐household sharing of the burden of coping; and the appropriate state and non‐state interventions that would strengthen the survival mechanisms adopted by the families themselves. The family is seen here as a bargaining unit, the ability of different members to command food (among other resources) depending on their relative bargaining strengths, determined in turn by their ownership endowments (of land, labour, etc.), exchange entitlements, and external social and communal support systems. Gender and age both form the basis of intra‐family inequality in this respect. While seasonality reveals a face of the family which is one of co‐operation, famine mirrors one of disintegration. In both contexts, the burden of coping falls disproportionately on female members within poor households, traceable to women's already weak and further weakened (during calamity) bargaining position within the family. A re‐interpretation of existing facts about the 1943 Bengal famine illustrates the process of family disintegration and the abandonment of wives and children during a severe calamity. State efforts complemented by non‐state interventions therefore need to be directed to programmes that ‘empower’ poor families and the more vulnerable members within them.     

Reconsidering the links between poverty,international labour migration,and agrarian change: critical insights from Nepal

The role of international labour migration in processes leading to the (re)production of rural poverty in the rural South continues to shape critical academic and policy debate. While many studies have established that migration provides an important pathway to rural prosperity, they insufficiently analyse the profound effects that migration and remittances have on agrarian and rural livelihoods. This article uses the case of rural Nepal, where over half of the households are involved in foreign labour migration, as a ‘window’ to understand the processes shaping how migration effects poverty. The paper analyses how migration generates outcomes across the domains of rural people's changing relationship to land and agriculture, their experience of migration, and rural labour markets to advance our arguments. First, it argues that migration leads to the commodification of land, generating changes in patterns of land uses and tenancy relations. With respect to rural people's engagement with agriculture, migration generates both processes of ‘deactivation’ and ‘repeasantization’. Second, foreign migration offers an exit from poverty for some while also creating processes of deeper impoverishment for others. Third, migration leads to structural changes in rural labour markets, reducing the supply of agrarian labour. Consequently, in contrast to the simplifying ‘narrative’ accounts of a migration pathway out of poverty, this paper concludes that the effects triggered by migration are highly contradictory, providing an exit from poverty when linked to diversification strategies, while engendering rising inequality and rural differentiation.     

Ethnic Identity Formation of Immigrant Children and Implications for Practice

The issue of immigration is especially controversial in the United States as immigrants today have not only increased in number but constitute a more heterogeneous population. Unlike the earlier waves of immigrants, which were predominantly of European origin, the post-1965 migration trend from Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean has tremendously altered the demographic characteristics of the U.S. population. In-depth exploration of various contextual factors affecting ethnic identity formation can offer insights that help social work practitioners and policy planners overcome the difficulty in working with immigrant populations and their descendants. This article reviews significant contextual aspects influencing immigrant children's ethnic identity formations and proposes practice recommendations that help facilitate the children's adaptation in the host society.     

Constructions of Deportability in Sweden. Refused Asylum Seekers’ Experiences in Relation to Gender,Family Life,and Reproduction

Drawing on ethnographic material, this article examines how the experiences of refused asylum seekers in Sweden are shaped by migration policies, welfare policies, and gender norms. The article develops a feminist account of deportability to examine some gendered and reproductive aspects of everyday experiences of seeking asylum in Sweden. Focusing on the interview accounts of one heterosexual couple and one woman from Kosovo, I explore how their experiences are formed by the refusal of asylum claims in cases of sexual violence and/or their relationship and parental status. The analysis reflects on the way in which the specific legislative situation in the time period in which these interviews were made led to a privileging of families with children above single migrants and/or couples without children. It also reflects on how experiences of deportability clash dramatically with the idea of Sweden as a women-friendly welfare state.     

Migration to the bars of Bombay: Women,village religion and sustainability

This article deals with the migration of Bangladeshi village women to the bars of Bombay. For about twelve years (1992 to 2003), ladies' bars provided a lucrative source of income for young women from villages of Jessore and Satkhira. With the money they earned, families were enriched and village economies were invigorated. From being burdens to their families because of the dowry required for their marriage, daughters became assets; wives provided for their husbands, daughters-in-law sustained parents-in-law and sisters established their siblings. No one could deny the widespread benefits of women's migration to Bombay. But how could their activity be reconciled with village norms requiring women to restrain their movements, show modesty and remain under the authority of guardians? How could women's migration be accommodated with village religion and principles of life held to be fundamental to an Islamic way of life and to the good order of society? How could women's earnings be enjoyed without reprobation or disturbances?     

Correlates of drug abuse in adolescents: A comparison of families of drug abusers with families of nondrug abusers

This study was designed to compare drug-abusing adolescents and their families with nondrug-abusing adolescents and their families by (1) a comparison of the adolescents on measures of self-esteem and perceived parental behavior, (2) a comparison of the parents of drug-abusing adolescents with the parents of nondrug-abusing adolescents on child-rearing attitudes and on distortion in perceived parental behavior, and (3) an identification of the salient factors contributing to the prediction of drug-use in adolescents. The subjects in this study were 26 clinical inpatient drug-abusing adolescents and their parents and 26 nondrug-abusing adolescents and their parents. Testdata consisted of the adolescent's self-esteem score on the Self Esteem Inventory (SEI), the adolescent's factor score on the Child's Report of Parental Behavior Inventory—Revised (CRPBI-R), and the parents' scale score on each of the five factors of the Parent Attitude Survey (PAS). Findings indicate that the adolescent's self-esteem and perception of parental behavior, the ability of the parents to predict the child's parental perceptions, and the professed parental attitudes toward confidence and responsibility in child rearing all combine to suggest a set of factors differentiating the drug-abusing adolescent from the nondrug-abusing adolescent.     

Incarceration in the Household: Academic Outcomes of Adolescents with an Incarcerated Household Member

The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world, yet there is relatively little information on how the removal of these adults from households impacts the youth who are left behind. This study used a child-centered lens to examine the impact of incarceration on the school outcomes of youth who resided with a family member or family associate who was incarcerated prior to the youth’s 18th birthday. We used data from 11 waves of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth: Child and Young Adult (n?=?3,338, 53?% female). Initial analyses indicated that youth who experienced a household members’ incarceration evidenced more socioeconomic challenges, more frequent home adversities, and lower cognitive skills relative to youth who did not experience a household members’ incarceration. Results also revealed that youth who had experienced a household member’s incarceration were more likely to report extended absence from school and were less likely to graduate from high school relative to those youth who did not experience a household members’ incarceration. Counter to our hypotheses, results revealed the incarceration of an extended family member being in the household was the only relation significantly associated with worse school outcomes. Plausibly, families who allow non-immediate criminally involved individuals to reside in the household are experiencing a more pervasive chaotic home environment than those with a parent or sibling incarcerated. Our study suggests that efforts to address the needs of children with incarcerated parents need to be widened to those who experience the loss of any household member due to incarceration.     

Physical and emotional sibling violence and policy: An examination of Fox-Harding's child care value perspectives

Physical and emotional sibling violence has received minimal attention compared with other forms of familial violence. Policy related to addressing physical and emotional sibling violence is scant, whereas the occurrence of violence between siblings is rampant in many families. An overview of the knowledge base regarding this social problem is provided as a backdrop for understanding the current sociopolitical status of sibling violence. Understanding current policy and societal discourse related to addressing sibling violence is possible through Lorraine Fox-Harding's values perspective on childcare policy. The four value perspectives of laissez-faire and patriarchy, state paternalism and child protection, the modern defense of the birth family and parents' rights, and children's rights and child liberation allow insight into how sibling violence is currently viewed and the policy implications of those perspectives. Regardless of one's value perspective, actions around policy and family interventions for sibling violence is warranted. Alternatives to the current situation and consequences of not addressing violent behavior between siblings are discussed along with roles the government, parents, and children can take in addressing this oftentimes underrecognized social justice issue.     

‘I DON'T WANT HER TO BE OVERWEIGHT LIKE I WAS AS A GIRL’

Widespread concern about a childhood obesity ‘epidemic’ has focused attention on the bodies, weight and food behaviours of mothers and their children. In childhood obesity-related discourse, mothers' bodies are framed in relation to the bodies of children, most directly in claims that fat mothers produce fat babies. Drawing on data from a qualitative study involving interviews with mothers of pre-school aged children, this paper examines how the blurring of body boundaries between women and children are translated into responsibilities in feeding. We argue that in the contemporary stigmatisation of fat, the external auditing of maternal feeding and children's bodies connects the bodies of mothers and children in detrimental ways. By focusing on the ways women are held responsible for both their own and children's bodies, we draw attention to how bodily aspirations, conflict and failure, shame, self-surveillance, judgement and guilt connect women to the bodies of their children. We stress the embodied significance of mother/child relations in early childhood nutritional care and we argue that a punitive anti-fat ethic threatens positive health outcomes for mothers and children.