Copii lăsaţi acasă de emigranţi. Studiu în judeţul Bihor Children left home by emigrants. A study in Bihor County Section Studies

Abstract

Starting from the limits of the current research on the phenomena of Romanian parent's migration for work by leaving the children at home, we collected data from schools throughout the Bihor County, conducted a survey with people in charge of these children and performed a secondary analysis on a survey with high school students. Result show there is a clear pattern of transnational family with fathers leaving abroad in 50% of the cases. When mothers are leaving too, children are left in charge of the extended family (mostly grandparents) or even by themselves. Among children of the migrants, those in this situation have the highest risk for school underachievement, low psychological well-being and deviant behavior. Research show that Romanian institutions that have to deal with these cases are insufficiently trained and engaged in solving the problems that appear. An integrated effort towards identification and properly dealing with these cases would definitely increase the quality of life of children left home.