Abstract
This paper examines the relation between parental migration and children's health in Ghana (N = 2760) and Nigeria (N = 2168) and considers four dimensions of parental migration: the type of separation, parental migration and the caregiver, stability of care arrangements, and the availability of remittances. By employing an ordered scale of children's self-rated health, we found that children with international migrant parents who are divorced/separated are less likely than children in non-migrant families to have good health. The magnitude of the effects are higher in Nigeria, attesting for a greater vulnerability of Nigerian children in divorced migrant families. Among children with parents living abroad who are stably married, spec* dimensions of children's transnational life are associated with negative health, while others are not. This study highlights the sensitivity of results to the context of parent-child separation and to the transnational dimension being measured.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 444-459 |
Number of pages | 16 |
Journal | Journal of Development Studies |
Volume | 53 |
Issue number | 3 |
Early online date | 6 Jun 2016 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Mar 2017 |
Keywords
- MIGRATION
- PARENTS
- MORTALITY
- DIVORCE
- IMPACT