Poverty and migration in the last ten years has considerably weakened the institution of the family in Moldova, according to UNICEF in its reports on the situation in the country. Since 1991, about 1.5 million Moldovans have left the country looking for jobs and means of subsistence for them and their families.
A second generation of Moldovans have already left in this search for a better future. While their parents were earning money abroad, children were growing up without parental care, attention or proper family education. According to official statistics, more than 160,000 children were left behind in the last two decades, but unofficial data raises this number to 300,000.