Beyond grit: unsettling normative narratives of left-behind children’s resilience
Beyond grit: unsettling normative narratives of left-behind children’s resilience
Migration is often framed as a strategy for families to overcome economic hardship, yet it simultaneously generates its own adversities – most notably prolonged parent-child separation with profound effects on left-behind children’s well-being and schooling. This duality demands resilience not only from adults but also from left-behind children in transnational families. Recent scholarship increasingly recognises that resilience, particularly academic resilience, is not an innate trait, but a relational process shaped by home, school, and community structures.
This paper explores how Filipino left-behind children navigate challenges arising from maternal migration, foregrounding their perspectives to address their persistent underrepresentation in migration research. By adopting an intergenerational lens, this paper moves beyond dominant resilience frameworks that narrowly emphasise grit and individual coping. Instead, it reconceptualises resilience as dynamic, embodied, sensory, and collective – a socio-cultural process deeply rooted in relationships. Positioning children’s resilience as a form of labour and lived experience, this paper critiques output-oriented models and offers a timely departure from individualising and responsibilising narratives.
Drawing on 32 narrative interviews – with 12 left-behind children and 19 Filipina migrant mothers employed as nurses in the UK and Australia, and as domestic workers in Hong Kong and Singapore – the study incorporates written, spoken and visual representations to capture migration stories. In doing so, it addresses two critical gaps: the persistent absence of children’s voices in migration discourse and the neglect of resilience’s embodied and affective dimensions, offering a richer, more relational understanding of how transnational families endure and adapt.
de los Reyes, Jay
24bed502-d1a7-460b-9657-6d24a7ffa4c5
April 2026
de los Reyes, Jay
24bed502-d1a7-460b-9657-6d24a7ffa4c5
de los Reyes, Jay
(2026)
Beyond grit: unsettling normative narratives of left-behind children’s resilience.
Migration and Resilient Trajectories in Asia, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore.
14 - 15 Apr 2026.
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Conference or Workshop Item
(Paper)
Abstract
Migration is often framed as a strategy for families to overcome economic hardship, yet it simultaneously generates its own adversities – most notably prolonged parent-child separation with profound effects on left-behind children’s well-being and schooling. This duality demands resilience not only from adults but also from left-behind children in transnational families. Recent scholarship increasingly recognises that resilience, particularly academic resilience, is not an innate trait, but a relational process shaped by home, school, and community structures.
This paper explores how Filipino left-behind children navigate challenges arising from maternal migration, foregrounding their perspectives to address their persistent underrepresentation in migration research. By adopting an intergenerational lens, this paper moves beyond dominant resilience frameworks that narrowly emphasise grit and individual coping. Instead, it reconceptualises resilience as dynamic, embodied, sensory, and collective – a socio-cultural process deeply rooted in relationships. Positioning children’s resilience as a form of labour and lived experience, this paper critiques output-oriented models and offers a timely departure from individualising and responsibilising narratives.
Drawing on 32 narrative interviews – with 12 left-behind children and 19 Filipina migrant mothers employed as nurses in the UK and Australia, and as domestic workers in Hong Kong and Singapore – the study incorporates written, spoken and visual representations to capture migration stories. In doing so, it addresses two critical gaps: the persistent absence of children’s voices in migration discourse and the neglect of resilience’s embodied and affective dimensions, offering a richer, more relational understanding of how transnational families endure and adapt.
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Published date: April 2026
Venue - Dates:
Migration and Resilient Trajectories in Asia, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore, 2026-04-14 - 2026-04-15
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Local EPrints ID: 509823
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/509823
PURE UUID: 9720eee9-999a-4adf-8617-5381361e28d0
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Date deposited: 06 Mar 2026 12:38
Last modified: 07 Mar 2026 04:12
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Author:
Jay de los Reyes
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