One of the unintended consequences of giving British passports to British Overseas Territories citizens is the recent trend of mothers departing to Britain with their children.It is easy to fall into the trap of assuming that all of these mothers are going simply to take advantage of the more generous array of benefits offered in Britain to unemployed mothers. In fact, the reasons for their going probably range from that to further education to better prospects for employment.The latter points were one of the advantages of the British passport in the first place; young Bermudians would have the opportunity to train and work throughout Europe. So there’s nothing wrong with young people leaving the Island to get education and experience, although it would be positive if they chose to return later. In some cases, Bermuda’s economy is too limited for the interests of Bermudians. If they want to follow a particular career, they have to leave.Still, the prospect of young people leaving Bermuda to take advantage of welfare benefits is a newer one, not least because when the Island enjoyed full employment and a growing economy, there was no real need for it. Now that there is serious unemployment, the support from a bigger better safety net becomes more attractive.In some cases, parents are leaving to get away from a difficult family situation, and this problem has now been going on for far too long. It is too easy to blame it solely on “deadbeat dads” or vindictive mothers. The truth falls somewhere in the middle. There are some fathers — too many — who will not live up to their responsibilities. And there are mothers (mainly) who deprive fathers of access to their children out of malice, although it works the other way too. The truth is that both cases happen. And the biggest losers are the children.Few people willingly uproot themselves and their families to go to live in a strange country where they know few people. At the risk of being accused of being frivolous, even fewer people willingly swap Bermuda’s weather and beaches for Britain’s without good reason. More seriously, if Bermuda wants to stop an exodus of young people for whatever reason, it needs to fix its own problems.One is improving the system governing parenting and single parent families so that children can get the financial and psychological support that comes from having two active and involved parents, regardless of whether they are living under the same roof.The second approach is to ensure that parents are not so devoid of financial support that they feel they must leave Bermuda. As One Bermuda Alliance MP Donte Hunt said, this does not mean that Bermuda should become a welfare state — but no one should feel they have to leave the country of their birth to survive.That goes to the third point, which is that this problem would largely go away if the Bermuda economy was expanding, and if Bermudians were able to get meaningful work and productive jobs. Doing that is not simply a matter of bringing about economic growth. It also requires better education, better training and better social skills — from parenting to money management and everything else in between.