Multilevel child protection in migrant-sending communities: Applying the SCII framework in rural Indonesia

International labor migration is a pivotal livelihood strategy for rural Indonesian households, particularly in East Lombok, where poverty and limited employment opportunities drive a high rate of overseas labor. However, this economic strategy often results in adverse social consequences for the children left behind, including emotional neglect, inconsistent caregiving, and educational disruption. This study applies the Societal, Community, Institutional, and Individual (SCII) framework to examine child protection mechanisms within migrant-sending communities in East Lombok. Using a qualitative case study approach, data were collected through in-depth interviews, participant observations, and document analysis involving children, caregivers, community actors, educators, and institutional stakeholders. The findings reveal that while caregivers—often elderly or economically disadvantaged—struggle to meet children’s developmental needs, informal community actors such as religious leaders and teachers offer fragmented protection in the absence of institutional coordination. At the institutional level, gaps in policy implementation, monitoring, and inter-agency collaboration severely hinder comprehensive protection. Meanwhile, societal norms tend to normalize parental migration and obscure its detrimental impact on child welfare. The study underscores the importance of context-sensitive, multilevel strategies that integrate formal legal mechanisms with local cultural practices and community capacities. By empirically adapting the SCII framework to a rural Southeast Asian setting, this research advances both theoretical understanding and practical policy development. It highlights the need to reframe child protection from a sectoral to a systemic issue, advocating for cross-level coordination among formal institutions and informal social actors. The study contributes to global discourses on transnational family dynamics by providing a nuanced model that captures the complexity of child protection in migration-prone regions. It offers actionable insights for policymakers, practitioners, and scholars seeking to bridge the gap between legal frameworks and the lived realities of left-behind children in rural Indonesia and similar contexts.