"Átsorsað" uppeldi?

Það er ekki ofsögum sagt að góð barnapössun er dýr hér í Toronto.  Pláss á góðu dagheimili kostar á bilinu 1200 til 1600 dollara, eða frá 70 til 95.000 íslenskar krónur. Og það er auðvitað bara fyrir 1. barn.  Ég veit ekki hvernig þessi upphæð stendur af sér gagnvart Íslenskum barnaheimilum, en ímynda mér þó að munurinn sé ekki ýkja mikill.  Stærsti munurinn er auðvitað að hér eru engar niðurgreiðslur.

En munurinn er líka sá að lægstu launin hér eru miklu lægri en á Íslandi.

Það er því ekki á allra færi að greiða slík dagvistargjöld og raunar má segja að fyrir marga borgi sig ekki að vinna ef greiða þarf slík gjöld, svo ekki sé talað um ef börnin eru fleiri en 1.

En það er hálf nöturlegt að lesa um fólk sem þarf að senda börnin sín yfir hálfan hnöttinn til að láta foreldra sína annast uppeldið.  "Átsorsa" uppeldið til "ódýrari" landa.  Því miður virðist sem svo að slíkt sé æ algengara.  Börn eru send til afa og ömmu jafnvel enn á fyrsta árinu. Önnur úrræði eru einfaldlega ekki til staðar.

Á vef Globe and Mail var frétt um þetta fyrir fáum dögum.  Þar mátti lesa m.a.:

"Sunny Wu had just immigrated to Canada from China when she discovered she was pregnant. Overjoyed, Ms. Wu prepared for her baby's arrival, never imagining that within a year, she would have to endure the agony and loneliness of being separated from her daughter.

Ms. Wu, a Chinese teacher, and her husband, a computer programmer, were squeaking by on minimum-wage jobs and could not afford to pay $1,200 a month for daycare. Ms. Wu, 34, also knew she would have to return to university if she didn't want to spend the rest of her life as an overeducated, embittered immigrant, packaging groceries for $7 an hour.

Though the separation was devastating, the couple could see no other way out. They sent their baby daughter to China to be raised by her grandmother, who was already caring for the toddler they had left behind.

“I felt so guilty. This wasn't how my new life was meant to be. I came to Canada to have a better quality of life, not a worse one.”"

"Canadians are, by now, familiar with the heartache Filipino and Caribbean women endure when they leave behind their children to come to Canada as live-in nannies. They end up parenting their offspring via long-distance phone calls and video cameras.

But the phenomenon of Chinese professionals immigrating here, and then sending their children back to China, is a new trend in what global experts call “transnational parenting.”

It raises troubling questions about how well Canada's immigration selection model is working — and may help explain the recent decrease in immigration applications from China.

“We discovered dozens of professional immigrants from mainland China were doing this because they all asked us how to get passports for their babies,” said Florence Wong, a social worker with St. Stephen's Community House in Toronto.

In 2002, Ms. Wong conducted a study of Chinese immigrants in five prenatal programs. Seventy per cent of the women said they were planning to send their children back to China to be raised by relatives. Social workers dealing with the community in Scarborough, Ont., confirmed the trend as well."

"“I think Chinese immigrants to Canada should be educated that sending their children back isn't the best thing. We keep our fingers crossed there won't be latent effects when they are teenagers.”

Judith Bernhard, director of the Early Childhood Education master's program at Ryerson University, says the psychological damage of separated children who reunite with their families can be severe.

“The most common issue is that the parent loses his or her status as an authority figure,” says Prof. Bernhard, who has conducted research into transnational mothers from Latin America.

The children often feel resentful and may rebel by refusing to listen or accept their parent as a decision-maker. Prof. Bernhard recalls one child who refused to eat in front of his mother.

For mothers, the most common emotion is guilt, and they sometimes compensate by spoiling the child, which can lead to more disciplinary problems."

Fréttina í heild má finna hér.