Parental Migration and Child Health in Mexico

Jenna Nobles, University of California, Los Angeles

This study uses nationally representative, longitudinal data from Mexico to examine the effect of parental migration on child health in sending communities. I compare children within households who experience parental migration at different key periods of physical development. This comparison provides an estimate of the migration effect net of those family characteristics that are related both to migration and to child health. Using this type of approach addresses the concern that parents who choose to migrate are selected on a number of key characteristics that also affect child well-being. Initial results suggest that, in the short run, parental migration negatively affects child height-for-age, a long-term measure of child nutritional status and illness.