Invisible Lives and Hidden Realities of Undocumented Youth (original) (raw)
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“I Put a Mask on” The Human Side of Deportation Effects on Latino Youth
Journal of Social Welfare and Human Rights, 2014
Recent research on immigration has looked at forced deportation issues and specifically on the mental health issues of immigrant parents separated from their children rather than from the child's experience. Hispanic adolescents residing in the United States who live with the fear of being separated from their parents either through forced parental deportation or as a result of being detained themselves may face serious health and mental health problems during the crucial developmental stage of adolescence and pre-adolescence. This study looks at twenty children ages 11-18 (males and females). Qualitative methods were used including focus groups and individual in-depth interviews to examine issues among youth who were at risk of being deported and/or whose parents had been deported or were at risk of deportation. Evidence from the study demonstrated that the youth have complex understandings of the stress of living in undocumented families that can be categorized in individual, social, and structural levels.
Social Problems, 2017
Using data from 53 in-depth interviews with undocumented immigrant young adults in Florida, we argue that undocumented legal status leads to a range of emotional challenges among this group. Lack of ontological security is at the core of emotions they must contend with, from frustration, fear, shame, and depression to anxiety about their future. Positive coping strategies include individually oriented activities such as listening to music, exercising, playing sports, attending church, and turning to close family members or friends for advice or compassion. Negative coping strategies often include behaviors that result in self-harm, including starving themselves, overeating, drinking, smoking, using drugs, and even ideating or attempting suicide. The most positive mechanism to foster well-being draws from social and emotional health generated by membership in immigrant advocacy organizations that provide opportunities for empowerment and belonging. Meaningful social connections result in positive emotional states, which in turn, provide young immigrants with emotional capital to aid in the process of resocialization, leading them to recast negative emotions into positive ones. We conclude with a discussion of conditions most conducive to the emotional well-being of undocumented immigrant young adults and factors that enhance emotional capital and contribute to greater well-being among this population.
Qualitative Study to Understand Adults’ Perceptions of Deportation Fears of Latino Students
2021
Latino high school students may be experiencing stress due to the fear of deportation, causing a lack of progress in academic, social, and emotional success. The research filled a gap by providing a collective school voice in understanding how the fears of deportation affect Latino students in a high school on the southside of Chicago, Illinois. Ethical leadership was the theoretical foundation of the study to express the role ethics play in making a productive difference in Latino students’ lives. A collective voice of parents, school leaders, teachers, social workers, and counselors discussed how the stressors affect students’ academic, social/emotional learning (SEL), and the school’s role in mitigating the fears. The purpose of the qualitative narrative analysis study was to understand adults’ perceptions on how deportation fears contribute stress to Latino students’ academic, social, and emotional success and how school leaders mitigate the fears. Qualitative narrative analysis was chosen to give voice to the parents and school staff serving the students daily. Data were collected through the triangulation of questionnaires, focus groups, and interviews. Purposive sampling began with a questionnaire given to 30 Latino families and 19 professional school staff serving the Latino students. The participants’ responses from the study’s three instruments revealed students’ fear of deportation of family members leads to trauma and loss of learning in school. In the study’s focus groups and interviews, school staff shared the fears were mitigated by addressing the students’ social, emotional, and academic needs. The recommendation is made to conduct similar research in non-sanctuary cities to include additional parents. Keywords: Latino students, Fear of Deportation, Mitigation, Sanctuary cities, Social and Emotional, Adults’ perceptions. Table of Contents
The Distress of Citizen-Children with Detained and Deported Parents
Journal of Child and Family Studies, 2015
In immigration enforcement, many undocumented immigrants with children are often detained and deported. But it is their US-born citizen-children that have been overlooked in immigration debates and enforcement policies and practices. Citizen-children are at risk for negative psychological outcomes when families are fractured and destabilized by arrest, detention, and deportation. The children risk being torn from their parents and, often, their undocumented siblings. To add to the small but growing empirical base on the effects of living under the threat of deportation and actual deportation of parents, we compared the psychological status of three groups of citizen-children: (1) a group living in Mexico with their deported parents; (2) a group in the US with parents affected by detention or deportation; and (3) a comparison group of citizen-children whose undocumented parents were not affected by detention or deportation. We compared children on self-report and parentreport measures of behavioral adjustment, depression, anxiety, and self-concept. Across the three groups we found elevated levels of distress, and differences between children who had experienced a parent's detention or deportation and those who had not. We discuss findings in the context of children's clinical needs, future research, and implications for immigration enforcement policy and practices.
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.
Coping With A New Society: The Unique Psychosocial Problems of Immigrant Youth
Journal of School Health, 1997
When immigrant children and adolescents leave their country of origin to live in the United States, they leave behind a familiar language, culture, community, and social system. They also experience a variety of emotional and cognitive adjustments to the realities of life in the United States. Many of these conflicts and adjustments place immigrant children at increased risk for psychosocial problems, school failure, drug use, and other risk-taking behavior. Early identification of immigrant children at risk for these problems can help school personnel and health care providers plan culturally appropriate and effective interventions. This a dcle discusses the potential psychosocial problems encountered by immigrant children in adjusting to a new home, school, and society, and offers suggestions for action. (J Sch Health. 1997;67(3):98-102) ccording to the 1994 Current Population Survey, some A 22.6 million foreign-born persons reside legally in the United States, representing 8.6% of the population.' The number of illegal immigrants is unknown. Most immigrants live in the major metropolitan areas of New York City, Los Angeles, and Miamiz Epidemiologically, immigrants represent a special population. Certain health problems, such as malnutrition and infectious diseases, are known to occur more frequently among immigrants than in the U.S. population as a whole.' Yet, limited literature exists concerning the psychosocial and mental health problems experienced by immigrants-100
Living in the Shadows: Plight of the Undocumented
The word "immigration" has become a household buzzword. The welcome sign on the Statue of Liberty that reads, "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free," however, is fading and has been replaced by many complicated conditions. What to do with the very large number of undocumented immigrants living in the United States and arriving at the United States every day commands considerable attention and has been the subject of breaking stories in the news. Working in the field of immigration demands an awareness of and sensitivity to diversity and cultural competence. Despite a "hot" sociopolitical climate when it comes to undocumented aliens and what to do with them, there are many ethical tenets that psychologists must be familiar with, among them rendering competent multicultural services. This article offers an overview of immigration law, the challenges of performing culturally competent assessments and consequences of failing to do so, and the plight of a particularly vulnerable group: unaccompanied children. Vignettes offer a personal look into the proceedings of 7 undocumented individuals in 4 major areas: asylum, hardship, U-Visa, and VAWA.
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.