ABSTRACT

Most of the research evaluating the import of paternal migration for children’s outcomes has taken ‘left-behind children’ as a single group. Taking a life course perspective, this paper distinguishes fathers’ short-term and long-term migrations, as well as return migration, as they affect children’s productive activities. Using the Mexican Family Life Survey (2002–2009), we followed school-aged children from two-parent households in 2002 and observed their activities as they transitioned into adulthood from 2005 through 2009. We found that fathers’ short-term migration is negatively associated with children’s labor force participation, especially for 12 – to 18-year-old boys, suggesting that paternal migration may interrupt adolescent boys’ labor market transition in the short-term. Fathers’ long-term migration and return migration does not significantly alter children’s activities. However, the negative role of fathers’ long-term absence and benefits brought by the paternal migration trip are important mechanisms for educational persistence and the labor force entrance of 12 – to 18-year-old girls, highlighting the conditions under which certain mechanisms may work. This suggests that migration is a family process, with the outcomes lying in the interplay of the stages of migration, children’s life stages, and how gender is treated within cultural and familial contexts.

 抽象的

大多数评估父亲外出打工对孩子的影响的研究都将“留守儿童”作为一个单独的群体。本文从生命历程的角度，区分了父亲的短期流动、长期流动以及返乡流动对子女生产活动的影响。我们利用墨西哥家庭生活调查（2002-2009），追踪了 2002 年双亲家庭的学龄儿童，并观察了他们在 2005 年至 2009 年过渡到成年期间的活动。我们发现，父亲的短期移徙对他们产生负面影响。与儿童劳动力参与率相关，尤其是 12 至 18 岁男孩，这表明父亲移徙可能会在短期内中断青春期男孩的劳动力市场转型。父亲的长期流动和回国流动并没有显着改变儿童的活动。然而，父亲长期缺席的负面作用和父亲外出旅行带来的好处，是教育坚持和12-18岁女孩进入劳动力市场的重要机制，凸显了某些机制可能发挥作用的条件。工作。这表明移徙是一个家庭过程，其结果取决于移徙阶段、儿童生命阶段以及文化和家庭背景下如何对待性别的相互作用。