No country for young men: International migration and left‐behind children in Tajikistan

Abstract

This paper investigates the effects of international migration on the schooling and labour outcomes of left‐behind children in rural Tajikistan. Using three‐wave panel survey data, I rely on an instrumental variable strategy to address the non‐random selection into migration. I identify important and gender‐differenced schooling and labour supply responses. My findings suggest that boys living in migrant households are less likely to lag behind at school or work. At the intensive margin, they also report fewer hours of work per week. On the other hand, left‐behind teenage females undertake a higher number of domestic chores. They appear to marry earlier as well. The migration impact on boys appears to be driven by remittances and the improved financial situation of households. The absence of any positive influence on the education of left‐behind girls is likely to be explained by Tajikistan's cultural norms and institutions.

Effects of parental migration on the education of left-behind children

“…Given that the same children are observed over time, the study adopts a fixed-effects estimation. The panel dimension of the data allows estimation of individual fixed-effects regressions, which frees the estimation results from the confounding influence of time-fixed unobservable factors likely to affect both selection into migration and socioeconomic outcomes as well as common country-wide time shocks (Jaupart, 2019). Furthermore, the models are estimated using strata clusters at the individual level as strata reduces the standard error and clusters increase variance therefore the standard error (Abadie et al, 2017).…”

The Legacy of Conflict: Reconstruction and Migration in the Aftermath of Civil War in Tajikistan

“…First, intrastate armed conflict continues to be one of the most common types of state-based conflict in the world (Pettersson and Wallensteen 2015), making the consequences of such a conflict broadly applicable. Second, international migration from Tajikistan has emerged as a major livelihood strategy (Olimova and Bosc 2003;Abdulloev, Gang, and Landon-Lane 2012;Jaupart 2019), which makes migration a salient social process in Tajikistan. The disaggregated experience of violent conflict and the prevalence of migration allow for an empirical study comparing conflict intensity experienced by a large number of migrants and non-migrants to better understand the relationship between the two processes.…”

“…Because intensive reconstruction efforts required more labor, those districts with well-established JRCs likely also had larger demand for construction-related jobs. Because such jobs are commonly sought abroad by (primarily young male) Tajik migrants (Erlich 2006;Jaupart 2019), JRC reconstruction efforts could, in places where conflict intensity was high, reduce potential migrants' incentives to leave by providing an alternative local labor market.…”

Adolescents who stay, parents who migrate: gender inequalities, resilience and coping strategies in Tajikistan

“…Only a small number of researchers have focused on understanding the impact of parental labour migration on the children in Tajikistan (Bennett, Clifford, and Falkingham 2013;Catrinescu et al 2011;Cebotari 2018;Gatskova, Ivlevs, and Dietz 2017;Jaupart 2018;Nazridod 2014). The current study adds to this.…”

“…Analysis of the existing literature on Tajik migration and children with absent migrant parents acknowledges that there are gender inequalities in both well-being and school performance, but also reveals several gaps in the research on this topic (Bennett, Clifford, and Falkingham 2013;Catrinescu et al 2011;Cebotari 2018;Gatskova, Ivlevs, and Dietz 2017;Jaupart 2018;Nazridod 2014). Firstly, only a small number of studies address children's and young people's agency, their perceptions of migration and their own wellbeing; secondly, the existing research rarely focuses on gender; and thirdlyand 3/35 most importantly for this paperwe have not any study on Tajikistan that examine children's views from a gender perspective.…”