By: Sidra saleem and Malaika Aftab
There are quite 11 million individuals residing within the U.S without legal authorization from the federal. While the entire number of unauthorized or “undocumented immigrants within the U.S has remained stable since 2009. There has been an increase in K-12 students with a minimum of one undocumented parent. In 2014 estimates suggested that 7.3% (or about 3.9 million) K-12th grade students in U.S. public and personal schools were children of unauthorized parents. The overwhelming majority of those children (3.2 Million) were U.S born, and thus citizens. These children are members of “mixed-status” families or households during which a minimum of one member may be a citizen or legal resident and a minimum of one isn’t.
The context of getting a parent, sibling or relative without documentation, or not being documented oneself. Maybe a unique stressor that can’t solely be understood as generic stress or trauma. Families with members who are undocumented often “live within the shadows” experiencing a scarcity of safety and fear of deportation due to their relationship with students and families, teachers, counselors, and other school personnel are often on the battlefront of handling psychological state concerns as they arise and will be well-informed about the challenges that immigration status issues may prevent.
A growing body of research suggests that children who experience the detention and deportation of a parent suffer from many short and long-term mental sleep (e.g, nightmares) crying, clinginess, and feeling of fear. Additionally, these children can later exhibit PTSD-like symptoms, including anxiety, withdrawal, and anger/aggression as well as academic declines at school (for a summary report about the psychosocial impact of detention and deportation see: Brabeck, Lykes and Lusting 2013)
In the pre-migration stage, children’s parents decide to leave their home country. These decisions typically reflect economic hardships in their home countries, political unrest, and persecution, or the desire to re-unity with family already living in the United States. This background sets the stage for children’s subsequent migration and acculturation experiences and their influence on children’s health.
The migration stage captures the mobility process of migrating, including whether the children walk, drive, fly, or come by ship; whether they travel with a trusted family member or friend or are smuggled into the country: and whether they are experienced hardship during travel such as detainment to the refugee camp, assault or hunger. The post-migration stage pertains to the settlement experiences of children; the process of navigating life in a new country in family economic situations, dynamics, and social roles. Pre-migration and migration whereas post-migration influences are critical to second and later immigrant generations as well.
We used the 27-item Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI) (Kovacs, 1992). Scores on the CDI range from 0 to 54 and a cut point of 20 for a general screening identifies adolescents as at risk for a depressive disorder. Internal consistency was good (α = .85). Using the 10-item version of the Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children (MASC-10) (March et al., 1997), we followed standard scoring protocols and classified adolescents as at risk for anxiety (i.e. above-average anxiety levels) if they had an at-score of 56 or greater. Raw scores range from 0 to 30 and are converted into standard t-scores (mean=50; SD=10). Internal consistency was good (α = .72)
Mental health stressors measured in this study fall into two categories: migration experience and discrimination. We identified five migration experience stressors. First, we calculated the total number of years the adolescent was separated from their primary caregiver. Second, we classified adolescents as having experienced a stressful migration event if they reported that they had been robbed, physically attacked, accidentally injured and/or became sick during their migration to the US
Early care and education programs face increased difficulty connecting immigrant families to health, nutrition, and social services. Parents are increasingly reluctant to access public health insurance and nutrition assistance programs—even for their U.S. citizen children. Providers and parents reported being concerned about their information being shared with immigration officials and about how participation in programs would affect their immigration status. “We’ve seen a major reluctance to enroll or re-enroll in public benefits. Moms are afraid to sign back up for Medicaid, food stamps, other services.” one home visitor in North Carolina said. Many early care and education programs feel unprepared to meet families’ needs. Immigrant families are seeking resources, such as legal advice and information on how immigration policies affect them, that are often outside of the expertise of early childhood providers. Across study sites, teachers and staff working directly with children and families expressed intense emotions about working with immigrant families and feeling unable to meet their needs. “It’s been really tough. Watching families go through this and not knowing how to support them,” said a social worker in California. Immigration policy changes directly affect the early care and education workforce. An estimated one-fifth of the early care and education workforce is foreign-born. Early care and education staff reported anxiety about increased incidents of racism and xenophobia that are affecting the families they serve and/or themselves, personally. Some were worried about the legal status of their own family members or friends. And several staff people had personal concerns, particularly those who had DACA status and worried about their futures. “. An early childhood educator in New Mexico described children making comments such as, ‘He cannot take my family,’ and ‘Can you imagine if they take my friend’s family away from them? What will they do?’Children also showed disturbing new behaviors—such as increased aggression, separation anxiety, and withdrawal from their environments. Expressions of fear were not limited to children in mixed-status families (Parent and provider accounts suggest that young children are young children’s housing and economic stability are in turmoil, with likely significant consequences for their wellbeing. Parents are under severe stress and lack resources to meet their needs getting less access to nutrition and health care services because of families’ fears
A better path forward: recommendations Congress and the Trump Administration should ensure that the best interests of children, including U.S. citizen children living in mixed-status families, are held paramount immigration policy decisions. Congress should pass legislation that provides a pathway to citizenship to undocumented immigrants, including parents and Dreamers. Congress should ensure immigration judges are able to weigh the hardship to children in decisions regarding a parent’s ability to enter or remain in the country. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) should use discretion when making decisions to arrest, detain, and deport parents of minor children in the United States.
