A month ago, I attended the Children and Families Across Borders (CFAB) Annual Child Protection Lecture. It was an interesting evening, and it introduced me to something that I had not really come across previously: international social work.
The only types of situations that I was familiar with where children cross borders, with regards to care needs, are intercountry adoption, refugee and migrant children, and children who are being trafficked. These issues also came up during the lecture. However, I was most struck by the topic that I had not been aware of: intercountry kinship care.
Several of the speakers pointed out that as the world seems to be getting smaller and more intermingled, there are few families left that have no international connections. Either with family members who have emigrated, or members who have immigrated and been added to the family. This means that when parents pass away, or in some other way are no longer able to look after their children, social workers do not only look for relatives who might be able to take in the children within the country, but also outside it.
I was surprised and delighted that this is being done. Because, in the end children are almost always better off if they are able to grow up in their own family. It helps them continue to build their identity and to keep in touch with other family members. And it also really helps their sense of belonging.
Of course, this is not a simple thing to do. And during a lecture like this, a lot of the problems are highlighted. These problems include possible difficulties in tracing family members, the question where there is a possibility of providing financial support when it is needed, and above all the difficulty of monitoring the placement to make sure that it really is in the child’s best interest.
Still, despite all these hurdles, I am very, very happy to know that these kinds of efforts are being made to make sure that children can grow up in their own family, even if they cannot grow up with their parents. And that there are organisations like CFAB that support that process.
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