LOCAL

Parreiias (2005) examined the dynamics of migrant

Filipino mothers and their daughters. Migrant mothers often
reach out to an extensive kinship network to maintain familial
stability in their physical absence. The children's grandparents,
aunts, uncles, cousins, close friends assist in the parenting of
children while the migrant mother is working in another country,
often in a different continent. With Filipinos' strong tradition of
family ties (Ohara-Hirano, 2000), despite the distance, these
migrants' priorities in their lives remain their family back home,
causing many family based life strains. In this research (Ohara-
Hirano, 2000), however, it is not indicated whether the stressors
change over time.

Despite the geographical limitations, migrant mothers use

creative ways to keep lines of communication open with their
children as a means of "being there" and to "achieve a
semblance of intimate family life" (Parrefias, 2005, p. 256).
Migrant mothers establish a routine of communication:
telephone calls, remittances, letters, voice recordings, text
messages, photographs or visits (Asis et al., 2004; Levitt,
2001). Some mothers send daily international text messages,
for example "biblical messages ... every morning, called 'my
daily bread" (Parrefias, 2005, p. 257).
 Migrant parents often go to extensive networks of
relatives to maintain familial stability in their absence. Migrant
parents are constantly trying to communicate with her offspring
and blood relatives using orthodox techniques in order to keep
their presence be felt and maintain familial stability, migrant
parents are often alienated by their offspring and that’s why
they maintain an intimate relationship with their offspring
despite being in another country to fill their duty as a parent and
avoid being alienated.

In Asia, the Philippines is the major supplier of labor

migrants to over 100 countries and the leading female migrant-
sending countries along with Indonesia. More than 8 million
(10%) out of the 85 million Filipinos were working or living
abroad. While over 72% of the total migrants from the
Philippines were women workers. Many of these women work
as domestic helpers, nurses, caregivers, and entertainers. With
this huge number of Filipino migrants (and still more) living the
country temporarily (or permanently), a more pressing concern
is with regards to children left behind. Though there is no
systematic data on the number of children left behind, it is
estimated to be 9 million or 27% of the total youth. The impact
of migration varies - ranging from economic benefits not only for
the family but the country in generally through its *remittances
to the security and well-being of the family of migrants. But a
major concern here is the social costs of migration specifically
to the children left behind. Parental absence creates
“displacement, disruptions, and changes in caregiving
arrangement.” There is always an emotional aspect that goes
along with parents leaving their children, especially for long
periods. Nevertheless, it is also a relief to have the extended
family looking after the children left behind. However, it cannot
negate the fact that the children are longing for the love and
care of their biological parents” said Reyes (2008). According to
the Literature Review of Reyes (2008) “

At this point, knowing that migrant child could probably be

affected emotionally and cognitively by the fact that parents are
miles away from them. Even they are doing well academically
or behavioral, the only way to resolve this is to draw a
communication and closer bonds to each, the children and the
OFW parent, to prevent any awkwardness that may build
through a series of neglect.

According to the Philippine Statistic Authority (PSA), there

are about 2.2 million Filipinos who work abroad. With this huge
number of overseas Filipino workers, lots of children were also
left behind here in the country. The reason behind this
migration event is because they want to sustain or give the
needs of people whom they love. These needs include shelter,
food, clothing, and education. Minda (2017), said that most
Filipino migrant parent thinks that the closeness of their
relationship cannot measure by physical relation but it is how
parents do their role to make their children’s lives good. Marave
and Asis (2013) stated also that Filipino parents see education
as one of the most important things on earth and they are the
ones who should find a way to make her/his child attend school.
To perform this role, parents choose to work abroad.

The Philippines, one of the largest migrant-sending

countries around the world where approximately 10% of the
country’s population is abroad, has always been in the leading
edge in the promotion and protection of human rights, and more
importantly children’s rights. Enclosed in its constitution in
Article 13 on Social Justice and Human Rights, the Philippines
has brought into existence some institutional machinery and in
an authorization to realize the state’s policy of valuing the
worthiness of every human person and guaranteeing the
complete respect for human rights. Furthermore, the country is
a signatory to all the seven core international instruments on
human rights and had moved over to several laws and policies
to accomplish such commitment.

The migration of the parents has a lot of effects on those

children left behind. It affects the child's emotional aspect,
social aspect, and perception in the life of the child. These
children are vulnerable to lots of problems and also becoming
self-doubting because of the lack of attention from parents
(Minda 2017). Additionally, Minda (2017) explained that
children who left behind are more likely being materialistic than
having good values and also being rebellious to both parents.