The Effects of Fathers’ and Siblings’ Migration on Children's Pace of Schooling in Rural Bangladesh

This paper studies the impact of fathers’ and siblings’ migration on children's pace of schooling in Matlab, an area of rural Bangladesh with high rates of rural–urban and international out-migration. A large sample of children aged seven to 14 participated in the 1996 Matlab Health and Socio-economic Survey. The overseas migration of their fathers and both the overseas and internal migration of their brothers were associated with improvements in the pace of the children's schooling. The migration of sisters had no effect. Migration of mothers in the location of this study remained too rare to be addressed in this study. Research relating migration to improved schooling outcomes among the left-behind raises concern that migration effects merely proxy for greater investment capital or higher aspirations. By integrating MHSS data with a unique Health and Demographic Surveillance System, the effects of wealth measured at the time of the survey and 14 years before the survey were controlled for. Migration effects, though reduced, remained significant even after controlling for current and prior socio-economic status.

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