Children and international migration in Latin America and the Caribbean, Number 11, November 2010

Child migration in the region has many contradictory aspects, as reported in the feature article of this bulletin. On the positive side, there are better educational opportunities in countries of destination and, in countries of origin, greater well-being thanks to remittances; greater protection gained by migrating away from situations of violence and social risk; and new horizons for broadening life experiences. On the negative side, there are precariousness and heightened family environment risks when the parents migrate and the children are left behind in the care of others; exposure to abuse and violation of rights during migratory processes; and possibly lower citizen status in receiving countries. In view of these issues, the article discusses the main spheres of intervention, grounded in the Convention on the Rights of the Child: the guarantee of due process in migration policy; the inalienable right to live in a family (right to family unity or reunification); enforcement of migrant children’s and adolescents’ entitlement to social, economic and cultural rights, with specific policies for meeting their protection and development needs; and ensuring remittances can be used to improve children’s lives (for example exempting these flows from taxes and reducing transaction costs for families). The article also focuses on children’s and adolescents’ right to identity and nationality and protection from violence and exploitation, including from detention and criminalization. In the testimonial column of this issue are the words of children recorded during an encounter in Quito organized by the Observatory for the Rights of Children and Adolescents. The Learning from Experience section refers to a programme in Mexico for training child protection officers and the Healthy Farm Programme in Costa Rica, which provides social protection for indigenous migrants from Panama. Lastly, there is a list of recent and upcoming events and of key documents on child migration.