The impact of physical separation from parents on the mental wellbeing of the children of migrants

Much has been said about the harm children of migrants experience as a consequence of sequential family migration. Most of this literature discusses the case of children left behind. By contrast, this paper measures the cost in mental wellbeing (proxied by a composite index of non-specific psychological wellbeing) that children of migrant and native families suffer as a consequence of long periods of physical separation from their parents after family reunification. To do so, we use a unique dataset produced in the Municipality of Madrid in 2011, covering children in the 3rd and 4th grades (aged 13 to 15) of obligatory secondary education. Our evidence suggests that children who, as a consequence of family migration, have been separated from their parents from a period of at least three months, suffer a loss of mental wellbeing of a similar magnitude to that of native children upon parental divorce. In line with recent evidence from other European countries, we also find that the impact of parental divorce is almost negligible on immigrant origin children. Theoretical and policy implications of these findings are discussed.