ABSTRACT
The introductory chapter presents the central argument that children’s rights under the Convention on the Rights of the Child that protect the child-parent relationship continue to be unnecessarily subject to interference by temporary labour migration policies without justification by States. It describes the purpose for adopting a rights-based framework, with three main aims. First, to understand the duty of States under international human rights law to support the child-parent relationship in the context of labour migration. Second, to identify potential harms to children’s rights that protect the child-parent relationship caused by State-designed temporary labour migration policies. Third, to recommend measures to reduce interferences by these policies with children’s rights by better supporting the child-parent relationship. It also defines the book’s scope, including its focus being limited to the children of migrant workers who reside in labour-sending countries and are in transnational relationships with their parents. Lastly, it outlines the socio-legal methodology used, explaining this approach as a way of permitting consideration of the contextual and intersecting policy issues that arise with temporary labour migration in practice, within a normative framework that is solidly grounded in the Convention.
