“Distant dollars, absent warmth”: A qualitative investigation of left-behind adolescents and caregivers in Bangladesh

Abstract This study investigates how parents' absence due to international migration affects adolescents' mental well-being. For the exploratory research, 12 participants were selected purposively from Bangladesh's Jashore and Faridpur districts. A pre-tested unstructured in-depth interview (IDI) schedule was used to collect qualitative data, then NVivo 12 software was applied for data management. Following the thematic analysis, six broader themes were identified. The results showed that migration is an inevitable result of lack of freedom of choice, which aligns with the New Economics of Labor Migration (NELM) and livelihood theories. The findings suggest a paradoxical outcome where a father's absence accelerates mental distress among adolescents; however, remittances offset the father's absence by bringing happiness. A father's absence accelerates left-behind adolescents' feelings of loneliness and, deprivation, as well as depressive disorders; however, the severity of the suffering depends on migration history, sex, and attachment to the father. Interestingly, male adolescents became more responsible than before, whereas female adolescents became rude and arrogant. Irrespective of sex, the adolescents missed their fathers' guidance. To reduce the negative effect of migration, the study recommends an increase in effective communication with the migrant fathers, involvement of adolescents in joyful social activities, and counseling of the adolescents to reduce mental illness. Caregivers and other family members are crucial for mediating the father's absence. Research avenues are open for comparing parental migration with other groups, accounting for different religions and contexts.