The Well-Being of Stay Behind Family Members in Migrant Households

Most studies on migration focus on migrants and the effects migration has on the host society. But for every migrant that leaves his or her origin country, there are also family members and loved ones that he/she ‘leaves behind’. This geographic separation has well-being consequences on both sides and involves complex transnational caring arrangements when it concerns dependent children or elderly. Yet, only in the past decade has research turned its attention to the ‘left behind’ or stayers. This chapter provides an overview of this recent literature and discusses the effects migration has for stayer children and elderly. The chapter focuses on the main topic investigated by these studies, namely, the effect of migration on the well-being of those who stay in the origin country. Well-being is broadly defined as mental and physical health, education, social behaviour, household labour and economic security. Qualitative anthropological and sociological in-depth studies are reviewed, as are larger-scale quantitative sociological, demographic and psychological studies