As in China, migrant workers in Southeast Asia are leaving behind a generation of children

From Vietnam to Indonesia, the Philippines and Cambodia, millions of children are being raised by extended family members as their parents migrate to find work

Many parents accept separation as the price they pay for working. And while there are fears for the effects on children, places like the Philippines have come to view migrant workers as heroes

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Khann Sophea and her daughters in 2018. Photo: Handout

Published: 9:30am, 18 Apr 2021Updated: 12:21am, 2 May 2023

Thach Di Thi Phuong Thuy and her husband have their eyes glued to a smartphone screen in their tiny studio apartment in an industrial township near Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. They are on a video call with their son Sarum, 11, who is keen to show them the cashew nuts he helped his grandmother peel that day.

Sarum lives with his brother Saruon, 13, about 180km away in the Mekong Delta, where they are being raised by the extended families of Thuy and her husband Thach Saret, who are both ethnic Khmers.

For the past three years, video calls like this have been the main source of intimacy for the two boys and their parents, who moved to the city to find jobs in the construction industry and have recently seen their incomes hit due to the Covid-19 pandemic, despite Vietnam’s relative success in containing the virus.

“When we decided to move we were very sad. My younger one cried and cried,” Thuy said, her eyes welling with tears. “But I couldn’t make ends meet living at home so I decided to leave my kids to my parents.”

The two boys are among millions of children of their generation who have been “left behind” with extended family members, friends, institutions or even by themselves as their parents migrate to cities or other countries in search of job opportunities.

Thach Di Thi Phuong Thuy and Thach Saret talk to their son in a video call. Photo: Sen Nguyen