Going home from residential care: an exploratory study of separation and re-integration experiences of young people and their mothers in Moldova

Background/ Purpose: Re-unification from child residential care (RC) is a widely-researched topic in social work literature. However, it remains greatly under-explored in Moldova, where the institutionalization of children is... [ view full abstract ]

Background/ Purpose: Re-unification from child residential care (RC) is a widely-researched topic in social work literature. However, it remains greatly under-explored in Moldova, where the institutionalization of children is a significant child welfare concern due to high parental migration rates. The existing approach to studying such experiences has a number of shortcomings. Firstly, it typically focuses on quantitative outcomes rather than in-depth family experiences. Secondly, children’s perspectives are often excluded or seen only through a parental or professional lens. However, involving children moves the focus from research on children to research with children, empowering them to talk about their experiences, without imposing an outside agenda. The present qualitative study aims to fill these gaps by exploring separation and re-integration experiences of children and their birth mothers in Moldova. The study seeks to enhance research on children transitioning from RC to kinship care in families where parents are migrant workers.

Methods: The study explored retrospective accounts of separation and re-integration experiences of young people (13-16 y.o.) and their mothers before and during separation, and following re-integration from residential care. Adopting a life-story perspective allowed a more integral understanding of families' experiences. All families were from extremely deprived rural areas in Moldova with the mothers being migrant workers. Drawing on grounded theory approach, data from 48 in-depth open-ended interviews (25 mothers and 23 children) in 20 localities in Moldova were collected and analyzed. Children’s views were explored using participatory research methods: photo-elicitation, life story maps, and drawings, producing rich child-driven data.

Key findings: Children’s accounts reflected complexity of their experiences. Being separated from their homes and families, children formed family-like relationships at RC- a fraternity of people that shared experiences and supported each other along the way. Children also defined RC as their “second home”. Re-union with their families was fraught with challenges: children struggled to fit into their homes, schools and communities; many saying they felt like a “stranger” alienated from their surroundings. Becoming native again for these children required adjusting to the re-shaped family contours and relationships, and creating social ties and circles in a changed environment.

Mothers’ accounts revealed their lack of understanding and powerlessness when their children were placed at RC. Left without family and social support, these mothers were presented with no other choice than to give their children to RC. Working abroad and not being able to see their children for years, they co-shared their child-rearing duties with extended family, community and RC. Mothers relied on RC as a highly trustworthy institution, which served for protection, education and better sustenance for their children. The mothers employed a range of strategies to manage separation and maintain contact with their children – keeping a link to the child, either during visits to Moldova or through extended family, keeping the child psychologically present in their lives, and maintaining a positive mother’s identity. Re-union challenges were identified as being inadequately supported by social services and feeling “under surveillance”. Alienation and stigma in their own families and communities came out as strong themes in mothers’ narratives.

Conclusions/Implications: The findings highlight the role of RC as an institution responsible for child care when mothers are not able to support their children. Children’s networks of family–like relationships at RC can be capitalized on as an important source of support during separation with their birth families. The study also revealed the families’ complex needs for a more comprehensive and fair system of ongoing social support and better involvement in decision-making processes. The findings will contribute to creating social support policies and practices in Moldova that are better informed by families’ needs and perspectives.