Research Today, Vol.

XI, No 1, 2020

The Linkage between Migration and Child

Labour: An International Perspective
Mohd Jafar
Research Scholar, Central University of Gujarat

Abstract:
Child labour is a global phenomenon, particularly salient
in developing and underdeveloped countries of the world.
Children migrate from one place to another in search of
employment and from rural areas to cities for better
opportunities; children tend to work in urban informal sector, in
agricultural sector and as domestic workers. The main purpose
of the parents to send their children in urban areas from the rural
areas is to earn some money so that the burden decreases on
household expenses and children will be able to earn some
money to support them and contribute in the education of their
sibling.Globally looking at the larger perspective, 1 in 8 people is
migrant and that includes 214 million international migrant and
714 million internal migrants, there are millions of children
under the age of 18 who migrates internally across national
border with or without their parents. Though migration can be
positive experience for children and can provide better
opportunities in term of (life against)forced marriage, conflict
and natural disaster but there are also serious challenges and
issues which can be nightmare for the children who are
migrating with or without their parents without proper
documents where legal protection is absent and where children
are prevented from getting basic services like health care and
education and in this situation child migrants are at high risk of
exploitation and vulnerable to child labour and many children
are ended up working as domestic labour and in agricultural
field. Child migrants often face lots of discrimination in the form
of non-payment of wages and threat of being reported to the
authorities, children who are migrated from one place to faces
discrimination in work, wages and long working hours. This
paper will discuss both the internal and international migration
and their link to child labour, those children who migrated at
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very early stages are at the greater risk and greater propensity to
be involved in child labour when migrating without their parents.
Keywords: Child labour, Migration, Internal, International

Introduction:
According to United Nation Development
Programme(UNDP) estimates 214 million people worldwide of
the world population are (as) international migrants, this figure is
dwarfed by the number of internal migrants which is to estimated
around 740 million and among them youth make up
disproportionate share of the world migrants, about a third of the
migrant flowfrom developing counties is in the age group of 12
to 24 years (Glind 2010: 1). The United Nations (1998) in its
recommendation on statistic of International Migration defines
migrants as any person who changes his or her country of usual
residence. It is difficult to define who is migrant due to the
dynamic nature of migration (Rossi 2008:07). Migrant person is
one who never return to a country other than that of his or her
usual residence for a period of at least 12 months so that country
of destination effectively becomes his or her country of usual
residence.
Migration is universal phenomenon, from time
immemorial women and men have travelled in search of better
living independently or with their families. Though there are
social and political factors behind the movement of people but
the main cause of movement of people across the globe is purely
in economical way (Mukherjee & Majumder 2012:71). Migration
is the movement of human beings usually from rural to urban
areas and to other rich states or places in the pursuit of better
employment, better wages and better quality of life. Those people
who migrate are not only poor but have large families to support
either at home or at workplace, in majority of the cases the
members of the family including children accompany the parents
(Goyal 2011: 429). Internal migration with in country is most
common than international migration among independent child
migrants, in one of the studies conducted it was found that
children from African countries are mostly internal migrants
(Flamn 2010:17). The traditional pull and push theories
surrounding independent child migration are just one aspect of
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the decision-making process that leads the child to migrate

(Capaldi 2014:6). The starting point is reconceptualization of the
normative nation of the term childhood, in majority of the world
the term childhoods and child work are intimately related to each
other, most of the children report working alongside their parents
at an early and this is the basic reason for being there drop out
and not able to get access the education. According to the article
5 of the CRC does not recognize the principle of the evolving
capacities of child, in article 12 of the convention which
recognize the child who is capable of forming his or her own
view and the rights to express those view freely in all matters
that’s affect the child and the view of child should be given due
weightage according to the age and maturity of the child.
Migration is an important household living strategy. Migration
can have profound impact on child welfare through many
measures like the migration can increase the household income
through remittances and with that remittances a family can spend
that money on the education of child, children can spend more
time on their education and less time on work (Morgan & Trinh
2018).
Defining child labour
Children constitutes an important segment of any society
in the world. As Bhargava (2003: 20) says, “If there was no child,
there would be no humanity and there cannot be a universe
without humanity”. For this reason, mankind owes to the child,
giving the best possible opportunity for their proper growth and
development. Thus, mankind has an obligation to bring up
children keeping in mind that they are the future of the society. In
the event of a child going on the wrong path, and are given no
attention, training and guidance, such a society is unlikely to
achieve progress and development. Every society must give
attention to ensure children are well cared for and brought in the
atmosphere where they will be able to receive proper training and
guidance to grow up, where they will be able to nurture
themselves and where they will be able to achieve a respectful
place in a society.
The concept “child labour” is difficult to define because
the concept is quite an ambiguous one. There is no consensus on
who is a “child” and what exactly is the meaning of “labour”. For
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this reason, arriving at a common definition of the concept “child

labour” is quite elusive. According to Raman (2000:4056),
“There is no universal experience of childhood…..experiences
are social constructs which are the result of a complex interplay
of historical, social and cultural factors”.This is indicated from
the varieties of definitions different scholars, individuals,
institutions and countries use. In some countries, a person is a
child if he or she is below 12 years. In some countries the
determining age for a person to be considered a child is 14 or 18,
and so on. Even within India, according to Bajpai, who
constitutes a child is not used uniformly and for different
purposes (Bajpai 2003: 2-5). Another problem with the concept
child labour is that the concept “labour” too is interpreted
differently in different contexts. In a general sense, a distinction
is often made between “child work” and “child labour”. The
former relates to that form of work which is beneficial to a child
while the latter is seen as those activities or works that are
adversely interfering with the normal or healthy development of a
child. The argument is that child work is acceptable whereas
child labour is not acceptable (Jha 2008: 206). This distinction is
what generally shapes the conception of child labour. According
to Lieten, child labour is “any work by children that interferes
with their full physical development, the opportunities for a
minimum of education and of their needed recreation” (Lieten
2000: 2037). Similar conception of child labour is also evident in
the international organizations like the International Labour
Organization (ILO). The ILO defines child labour as follows:
The term “child labour” is often defined as work
that deprives children of their childhood, their
potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to
physical and mental development. It refers to
work is mentally, physically, socially or morally
dangerous and harmful to children; and interferes
with their schooling by depriving them of the
opportunity to attend school; obliging them to
leave school prematurely; or requiring them to
attempt to combine school attendance with
excessively long and heavy work (ILO n. d.).

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The definition offered by the ILO issimilar the

conceptualization of a child and child rights by the UN
Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). The UNCRC
argues that rights of the child must be “protected from economic
exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be
hazardous or to interfere with the child’s education, or to be
harmful to the child’s health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral
or social development” (United Nations Organization 1991,
Article 32.1). By and large, child labour, in its extreme forms,
include enslavement, exposure to serious hazards, illnesses and
leaving them to fend for themselves, mostly at an early age.
Whether a child is said to be engaged in child labour depends
upon the child’s age, the duration in which a child works, and the
working conditions and the objectives of using child labour.
Children constitute an important section of any society. They are
at a particular stage of human development and their well-being
is closely connected to the broader holistic development of any
society. The environment in which children are brought up, the
ways in which they are socialised, and the kind of education they
receive have a bearing on their personality development.
Throughout the world, any well-reasoned steps or planning for
the development of children underline the importance of bringing
up children in an environment that is conducive to their
intellectual, physical and social health. Their holistic
development and well-being constitute the key to ensuring that
children grow up as a responsible and productive member of the
society. As Jawaharlal Nehru, independent India’s first Prime
Minister, says, “A healthy child gives birth to a healthy nation”
(quoted in Gangrade and Gathia 1983: 1). For a nation to
progress, the benefits or the importance of investing in children
and underlining their welfare can never be overstated.
Every nation in the world by and large links its future
with the conditions and well-being of its children. Children, by
engaging in activities and work when they are not yet ready for it,
not only hamper their present welfare but also hamper their future
chances of becoming productive members of the society
(Agarwal & Pathak 2015: 17). Given the poverty situation of the
parents and their inability to augment income to sustain their
families, parents usually send their children to engage in a job to
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tide over their economic hardships and to make both ends meet.
This is the context that explains why income low or poor
households, usually send their children to work in such early
stages of life. The most unfortunate part of child labour is that
children are made to take up job at the cost of education.
Childhood as a stage of life wherein they have to spend their time
pursuing education is taking a backstage. Children migrate with
or without their families due to hostile family atmosphere, ill-
treatment by the parents, aversion to the schools or the glamour
of city life to seek living.Child labour has strong adverse
implications for children. The duration of a child’s work day
hampers his or her capacity to attend school. The menace of child
labour deprives the children of their right to have access to
education and also deprives them of the opportunity to engage in
a learning process in a formal classroom setting. Child labour is
thus seen as prejudicial to a child’s overall growth and
development and restricts a child’s capacity to have a secure
future life. The problem of child labour is therefore a curse and
matter of disgrace for a civilised society. It is also a threat to the
economic well-being of a society. It is one of the significant
impediments that stand in the way of human development. It is a
blot in the face of humanity and is a human rights issue as the
practice of child labour denies the dignity of human being and
deprives the children of their liberty and freedom (Fyfe
2009:149).
Migration and child labour:
Migration and child labour are synonymous with each
other because globally most of the children migrants with their
families because of the economic reason as this will be the
survival strategy for household in many parts of the world and
provides families and children with new opportunities but it also
makes them vulnerable in many cases because when parents
migrants to other place and start doing the work in the field, their
children also support them on in case or another and employer
put them in work but it is not necessary that all children end up in
child labour (Glind 2010 :02). Looking back at the migration and
child labour as migration for child migrant may bring positive
and negative aspects as in some casesmigration and child labour
can be positive step for children and can provide them with better
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life and the opportunity which can escape them from immediate
threat such as forced marriage, conflict and the natural disasters,
however child migrants face many difficulties while migrating
particularly when do not have proper documents or when they are
moving without their parents and in most of the cases they lack
the required information for their destination and can find
themselves in the countries where protection of the children is
absent and do not have basic rights and education of the children
(ILO 2013:13). In such a case there are high risk of child
exploitation and are vulnerable to child labour resulting many
children which found themselves working in the agricultural field
or involved themselves in domestic work. Child migrants often
experience the maltreatment both during the process of migration
and their destination point and such treatment includes violence
and threat of violence, nonpayment of wages and the threat of
being reported to authorities and among child labourers, child
migrants and the children who are trafficked are the least paid,
they are deprived of their liberty and are prone to threat of
violence.
Review of Literature:
Mukherjee & Majumder (2012) According to the author there
should be positive and negative impact of parental on left out
children and the positive impact is thatof high remittances and
higher household income then was possible locally and the
negative effects of parental migration on children left behind like
psychological cost of the parents, lower care of the children left
behind by guardians, lack of guidance and poor school
performance and so on.It has also commented that possible long-
term effect of migration might cancel out the effects of temporary
improvement in household income through remittances from
migrant parents.
Goyal (2011) She has given detail description of the reason and
causes of child labour in agricultural sector. People who migrates
are not only poor but have large families to support either at
home or at the workplace, in majority of the cases the members
of the family including children accompany their parents. Those
children who moves away without their parents are particularly
vulnerable to the exploitation by their employers. The reason for
the children to move away from their families is due to hostile
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atmosphere of the family, ill treatments by their parents, aversion

to the schooling and abandonment by parents or the glamour to
the city life.
Capaldi (2014) discuss about the independent of child migration
in Thailand. Children and youth make up an unusually high
proportion of the total number of high migrants and they
generally lack the legal documents for the journey, this make
highly vulnerable to deception, coercion, abuse and exploitation.
Those independent children who moves away to foreign countries
faces kind of discrimination in the form of low paid wages,
working long hours and have little time to rest, exploited by the
workers and get abuse from the hand of employers. According to
the author it is the responsibility of every nation to protect its
children from forced labour, exploitation and trafficking,
Thailand for example has ratified most of the relevant
international conventions and the illegal movement and
exploitation of workers. Many migrants seem to experience a
form of consensual exploitation where by the utilize exchange
power in a form of “you do this for me and I will do that for you”
kind of relationship. In many countries of the world and relating
it with their culture nothing is more important than supporting the
family and it is this motivation and aspiration to achieve their
migratory goals which derives so many children to migrate again
and again.
Roy & Singh (2015) This paper elaboratesthe impact of rural
urban labour migration on education of children in India.
According to the author in developing countries, a large number
of children are affected by the temporary migration of their
parents for long periods, children who are left behind or who
migrate with their parents face several challengesin term of
education and health care and they suffer through various social
problems and are exposed to exploitation. It is very difficult to
estimate the number of children who are left behind or who
accompany their migrant parents around the globe due to their
mobile nature, however empirical evidences show that the
number of children is effectively high, for example 18-40% of
children in Bangladesh are living in migrant household.

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International labour response to child migration:

International Labour Organization (ILO) has introduced
different terminology with regards to child labour, children in
employment and children in hazardous work, with certain type of
child labour being referred to as a worst form of child labour and
this conform that child work is not necessarily the same as child
exploitation. The convention on the rights of the child (CRC)
protect child, regardless of nationality or immigration status,
states have obligation to adopt the principles outline in the
convention toward each and every child with in their jurisdiction,
although the rights of migrant child are not addressed specifically
there are several provision which are related to migrant children
including article 10 talking about the family reunification, article
36 talking on protectionfrom all form of exploitation. Article 37
gives protection from torture or other exploitation. The
International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of all the
Migrants Workers reaffirms the rights set forth in CRC.
The child, Labour Migration and Family:
Various authors have argued that migration and child
labour are two of the several strategic responses of the family for
survival and social mobility, but poverty is most common reason
cited for migration and child labour beside that involvement of
family members to migrate and work especially in the case of
children (Camacho 1999:57). The reason for the migration is
solely owned by the child but in some cases the decision between
child and other members of the family, mostly with the mother
Impact of migration on left behind children:
The major issue regarding the migration on child labour is
unspecific but theoretically speaking the impact of migration is
either positive or negative, while migration may improve the
living condition of the family but the migration of adult family
members may result in increased child labour due to the
household work or to compensate for the lack of child labour and
this ultimately resulting the reduction of children in schools
(Morgan & Trinh 2018: 01). There is no global estimate on the
number of the children who have at least one parent migrating,
however it become part of the children who are living either with
one parent or without parents. The impact of migration on child
can be analyses through various measure like it can affect the
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child health, and the impact of migration and remittances upon

human capital formation that is education attainment, and the
impact of remittances on child economic activities and the
possible risk of child labour (Rossi 2008:14). The social cost of
migration can be very high particularly due to lack of parental
caring, children left behind envitably grows up in single headed
families or if the case is when both the parents are migrating then
it becomes more difficult. With that thee are also negative effects
on the children of migrants parent or if any one single parent is
migrating, absence of men can create the material and
psychological insecurity on leading mothers or on the children
when both the parents are migrating to pressure and negotiations
with wider family members. Parental absence varies not only
with the time but also with the type of migration that is seasonal
migration for example in the case of Nicaragua it is found that
seasonal maternal migration positively impacts the early
cognitive development of children (Rossi 2008:24). When
examining the empirical evidence on the impact of parental care
on the children left behind, it is necessary to look behind the final
outcome of the migrating parents and that is lack of parental care
for the children and another is remittance, remittance can
compensate for maternal absenteeism due to the positive
contribution to the household income and to the household
potential access to provide better health, education and work
opportunities. Although it is found that there is negative effect on
children general health particularly during the first period of
parental migration, but the positive impact of remittances can
compensate for this negative effect because the increase in
household income may elevate the available food in their platter
and the education they will get from the remittance their families
is getting from parents.
Children Migrating with their parents:
It is more common that most of the children migrate with
their parents or guardian than alone and those children who
migrate with their parents are less prone to child labour but still at
risk being involved in child labour. Many migrant families that
work in the agricultural sector depends upon the output of
produced by their children to earn the living. An International
Labour Organization (ILO) study has found in commercial
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agricultural sector in South Africa that children of migrant

workers on some farms are required to work if they wished to
live, the reason behind this that there are no day care agencies to
look out for the infant, toddlers or young children who are not
working.
Independent child migration:
Most of the children in developing countries move
without their parents or guardian to earn for themselves or for
their families and those children are most vulnerable to coercion,
violence and exploitation both in transit and their destination
(Flamn 2010:17). International Programme on elimination of
Child Labour (IPEC) launched the Spring Rain Campaign in
china in 2007 and in that campaign thousand of volunteers raised
the awareness about the danger of trafficking of child labour.
Those children who migrate are at the major risk of being
involved in the child labour and the girls are most susceptible to
sexual abuse, there are also risk of those children who migrate
illegally without proper legal documents. In a survey of
independent migrant children travelling from Nepal to India it
has been found that out of all children who migrate only 4%
carried out any form of identity documents making them illegal.
Those children who are migrating without any legal documents
making them vulnerable in the form of police harassment and
they will not be allowed to access the social service such as
public housing and schooling despite national and international
laws that guarantee these basic rights, other important barriers at
the national level is fear of deportation, lack of money to pay the
school fees and language barriers that often prevent the children
to get the school education and these children are more likely to
be involved in child labour, by attending the school and gaining
knowledge skills that will help them by getting better jobs in the
long run and escape the poverty. Although majority of the child
migrants with their families but in some cases moves
independently, according to the world bank report of 2008 most
of the children from developing countries are living without their
parents and in most of the case where child migrants from their
place is undocumented or irregular, as the children from working
age tend to have few legal channels through which to migrate and
this will expose the children to additional dangers in transit and
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create dependency on adults who may take advantage of children

vulnerability and dependency to abuse/ exploit them. In the case
of those children who are born abroad particularly to
undocumented migrants, they do not have access to birth
registration and therefore become stateless and thus reducing the
chance of getting basic service and increasing the like hood they
revert to child labour (Glind 2010: 03)
Those unaccompanied children who migrate work in the
informal or under ground economy in which it become easier for
them to find the job but they are most likely to be exploited as
there is no government oversight, employers gets away with all
sorts of abuse, verbal or physical assault, cases of sexual
harassment and the issue related to wages and unhealthy and
dangerous working condition and under this condition child well
being is entirely depend upon the whims of employer. The
condition under which child lives creates the environment of
hopelessness, lack of parental guide and the ignorance of the
resource available and the rights to which they are entitled,
unaccompanied child migrants often find themselves in unhealthy
environments.
Response of International Community:
Given that most of the children who are over the age of 15
years (14 years in some countries) have a right to work and to
obtain an education, it is very important to be safe migration
rather than stopping them. Implementing the trafficking and child
protection law that are designed to protect the accompanied
children can be tricky and may have negative consequences. In
some cases it is the best that child should be remove from the
place where he/she is working and to put the child worker in safe
environment or either arrange the return of child of his or her
country but the most important thing among them is that those
children who migrate from their place of origin to the place of
destination independently to work, detention and voluntarily
return home are often contrary to his or her best interest.
Unaccompanied youth and child migrants face lots of
issue and are exposed to the problem of child labour when they
migrate across the national borders, with regards to independent
migration of the children it should be recognized that child have
right to move and there is no basis in international law that can
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restrict the migration of movements of children of working age.It

is very important that those children who migrate with their
parents should have access to basic social services regardless of
the status of their migrant parents. Migration and child protection
policies should incorporate a child rights perspective that take in
to consideration the specific conditions and the need of migrant
child who are particularly vulnerable.
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Analysis of Child Labour in India. Lakshya: Journal of
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