United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Libri

After almost two decades of transition, the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region continues to be a region in a state of change. The report uses available data to identify critical economic and social trends and assess the impact of policies on children in the period of growth immediately preceding the current crisis. It also looks at changes in the context in which children are growing up: the character of economic growth, widening inequalities, striking demographic trends, as well as public expenditure levels and structures, all of which influence policy choices that affect children.

Among the critical knowledge gaps concerning children is a lack of systematic and validated evidence on the situation of children who have migrated with their parents. While this gap exists for virtually all countries, it is particularly striking for industrialized countries where data on children and families is otherwise generally complete. This Innocenti Research Centre (IRC) study presents internationally comparable statistics on the family contexts in industrialized countries in which different groups of immigrant and native children live. It is intended to promote a greater understanding of the situation of these children and the barriers to inclusion they may face, and to make policy recommendations