Living in the Shadows: Plight of the Undocumented (original) (raw)
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Child & Family Social Work, 2018
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International Migration
As the organizer of a 2009 summer workshop held at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University on unaccompanied, undocumented children in the United States, I am delighted to introduce the first in a series of publications that will contribute to a growing nationwide debate on the challenges facing this vulnerable population. First, a word of explanation about the workshop participants before describing matters of substance. I designed the workshop to bring together academics and practitioners who speak different professional languages, use different methodologies in their research and practice, disseminate their findings in different venues, and rarely have the opportunity, or perhaps even the inclination, to sit down together to share knowledge, to ask unexpected questions, and to debate the consequences of public policy decisions. The participants included three immigration attorneys, two law professors, two immigration judges, a specialist on child refugees within the Lutheran Immigrant and Refugee Service, a child psychiatrist, a developmental economist, a sociologist, and five anthropologists. In addition to their expertise in children, migration, and the law, participants were chosen for the ways their experience or training blurs the divide of the academic and practitioner and spans the private and public sectors. For example, some participants are employed by NGOs under contract to the government while others moved from government work to private research positions or currently combine teaching with legal practice. In this group, practitioners regularly publish and academics often consult. Five of the sixteen migrated to the United States, four speak English as a second language, fourteen have extensive international experience, and all have professional expertise in the legal and social issues raised by the migration of people across borders. Participants included Jacqueline Bhabha,
Charting Directions for Research on Immigrant Children Affected by Undocumented Status
Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 2017
Three groups of children from Mexico and Central America are vulnerable to effects of U.S. immigration policies: (1) foreign-born children who entered the United States with undocumented immigrant parents; (2) unaccompanied children who entered the United States alone; and (3) U.S.-born citizen-children of undocumented immigrant parents. Despite the recent demographic growth of these youth, scholarship on their strengths and challenges is under-theorized and isolated within specific disciplines. Hence, service providers, researchers, and policymakers have insufficient research to inform their efforts to support the children’s well-being. A group of scholars and service providers with expertise in immigrant children convened to establish consensus areas and identify gaps in knowledge of undocumented, unaccompanied, and citizen-children of undocumented immigrant parents. The primary goal was to establish a research agenda that increases interdisciplinary collaborations, informs clinic...
Mental Health Problems of Children of Undocumented Parents in the United States: A Hidden Crises
The ripple effects of immigration enforcement on the lives of citizen and undocumented children in the United States (U.S.) remain hidden. Amidst unpredictable and traumatic immigration enforcement policies and practices in the U.S., children of undocumented parents are exposed to stressors that severely threaten their mental well-being. A community-based participatory study revealed that many of these children suffer from considerable mental health problems. If immigration policies and practices in the U.S. do not change, millions of children will continue to suffer from their unmet mental health needs. Furthermore, these unmet mental health problems are likely to affect them into adulthood and engender a heavy human and economic cost for them and all of society.
Mental health of unaccompanied children: effects of U.S. immigration policies
BJPsych Open
Background There is an unprecedented surge of forcibly displaced people globally, with a crisis of unaccompanied minors seeking haven across the US border. Aims This paper aims to provide an understanding of the intersection between mental health and immigration policies. Method Examples of contemporary policies that focus on the deterrence, detention and deportation of unaccompanied minors in the USA, will be discussed, as well as the mental health effects of such ‘iron triangle’ immigration policies. Results In the ideal circumstances, systems and policies for migrant children would uphold international humanitarian law, hasten the shift from enforcement to protection, adhere to a ‘do no (further) harm’ model that uses a trauma-informed, culturally responsive approach to engaging with migrant children, engage the community as stakeholders to end detention and advocate to share the burden of responsibility. Conclusions Building a humanitarian response that protects both country and...
MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMS OF CHILDREN OF UNDOCUMENTED PARENTS IN THE UNITED STATES: A HIDDEN CRISIS
The ripple effects of immigration enforcement on the lives of citizen and undocumented children in the United States (U.S.) remain hidden. Amidst unpredictable and traumatic immigration enforcement policies and practices in the U.S., children of undocumented parents are exposed to stressors that severely threaten their mental well-being. A community-based participatory study revealed that many of these children suffer from considerable mental health problems. If immigration policies and practices in the U.S. do not change, millions of children will continue to suffer from their unmet mental health needs. Furthermore, these unmet mental health problems are likely to affect them into adulthood and engender a heavy human and economic cost for them and all of society.
2016
This article first examines the recent “surge” of unaccompanied children migrating to the United States, exploring its causes, children’s experiences on the journey, and what happens once they arrive in the United States. Because many aspects of these experiences are traumatic, they create a need for mental health care. The article then addresses this need and the fiscal and human costs of failing to address it before advocating a simple solution: expanding eligibility for Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program to include low-income undocumented youth. After briefly examining the history and structure of these programs, the remainder of the article presents constitutional and policy arguments for removing the ban on providing these government services to children who are in the country without authorization.