Left behind: Amid immigration debate, children often are forgotten

Published: 2007-12-28

LIMA, Peru (CNS) -- Talking with neighbors in a small town in Ecuador one morning, Susana Nicoladi recalled a friend who immigrated into Spain while her husband stayed home with their children. He had an affair, she said, "and lost the children's respect." One of her neighbors was raising a rebellious nephew, the son of her sister who was working as a maid in Spain. Some 3,000 miles away, in Connecticut, an Ecuadorean mother of 10 children reminisced about her family. Her youngest child was only 2 when she left for the United States, where she works as a housekeeper in a motel. "She is 8 now, and she doesn't know me," the woman said sadly. Amid the political debate over immigration, the children are forgotten too easily. But they are often the ones most affected as long separations tear families apart. "We need to pay more attention to the kids who are left behind," said Mary DeLorey, a strategic issues adviser for Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' international relief and development agency. More and more children in Central America are being raised by people other than their parents, DeLorey told Catholic News Service.

Copyright (c) 2007 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .