Acta Universitatis Danubius. Communicatio, Vol 9, No 1 (2015)

Abstract

The leaving of one or both parentsis closely related to finding and filling a job on the external labour market,with financial and material rebalance within the family environment, withrising living standards, manifested as a social phenomenon. The effects arefelt both within the family, in which changes in structure, dynamics andfunctionality take place, and by the child, who faces a variety of issues. Wesee these around us, in our families or at those near us, within the workenvironment or in the neighbourhood and these are presented mostly as a veryeasy alternative for solving financial problems and the good initial intentionto change the economic situation of the family has, in time, an effect on thefamily and children. What causes family members to take this decision, how doesit affect the family environment, how does the child perceive the changes infamily structure and how does these changes affect him are just some of thequestions that we want to tackle within this paper.The paper is designed to analyzetemporary foreign labour migration, its causes, its consequences, theinstitutions and legislation in this area at national and European level, butmainly on how children are affected by the departure of parents and which arethe institutions and legislation that protect these children.The research part consisted of aquestionnaire-based sociological survey, on a sample consisting of 180students(90 from the urban environment and 90 from the rural environment), withthe aim of sketching the image of the family affected by the phenomenon ofexternal migration, of identifying the reasons which led to the decision ofgoing abroad to work, of how children are affected by the departure of one orboth parents, of the quality of the relationship child- care person, of the problemsthat may or may not improve if one or both parents would return to the familyenvironment. The manner of presenting the results combines quantitativestatistical data with excerpts from interviews of child protectionprofessionals in communities.