Bringing Attention to Issues Related to School Social Work Practice with Immigrant Children and Children of Undocumented Parents

Although there are daily stories and media coverage reporting on the status and circumstances of undocumented immigrants within the United States, the plight of children whose parents are undocumented or who are refugees has received scant attention in research on school social work practice. Approximately 5 million U.S. children have at least one undocumented parent. With the majority of these children being of Latino descent, many are from families seeking refuge from war and national turbulence within Central American countries. In 2014 the United States experienced a surge in the number of unaccompanied minors fleeing gang violence and poverty in their countries of origin and migrating to the U.S.–Mexico border (Gonzalez-Barrera, Krogstad, & Lopez, 2014).

There are both “immigrant children” (those foreign-born and migrating to the United States) and “children of migrants” (those who are born in the United States to undocumented parents) (Capps, Fix, & Zong, 2016). Similar to their adult counterparts, immigrant children are themselves subject to arrest and deportation if they are undocumented. Yet, in many states such as Utah, for example, 90 percent of Latino youths with immigrants parents were born in the United States (American Immigration Council, 2015). In addition, 35 percent of refugees are school-age youths (ages five to 18 years) (Migration Policy Institute [MPI], 2015). Given fiscal austerity measures and the politicization of U.S. social welfare programs in the areas of education and health care, and competition for employment opportunities, compassion for undocumented individuals and families has waned in the hearts and minds of many Americans. Between 1998 and 2007, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security reported that over 10,000 U.S. citizen children had parents deported (Rubio-Hernandez & Ayón, 2016). Moreover, President Obama's initiative enacted in 2014, the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents, which weakened the federal government's resolve to deport undocumented parents of citizen children in the United States, was suspended by a federal appeals court in Texas in 2015, and rescinded by the Trump administration in June 2017 (Capps et al., 2016).

School-age children and youths who are part of families in which a parent is arrested and deported face multiple mental and behavioral health and socioeconomic challenges. Our schools are microcosms of our society. The continuous debate about immigration issues in the United States has fostered a social milieu where slights against immigrants, particular those of different religious and linguistic backgrounds, has gained greater normalization. A climate of backlash against Latino immigrants, particularly from Mexico and other parts of Central America, has engulfed our country's political consciousness (Capps et al., 2016). Nearly half of Mexican immigrants in the United States are undocumented. Of children with undocumented immigrant parents, 70 percent of those in the United States are of Mexican decent (Landale, Hardle, Oropesa, & Hillemeier, 2015). Political discussion helps shape social debates, and race and ethnic relations. Thus, xenophobic and discriminatory slights levied against Latinos within the social milieu can and do transfer to the school setting. School-based professionals must be aware of the national and local sociopolitical context and its effects on school climate, and they must (a) develop proactive measures to ameliorate xenophobic tendencies, bias, and discrimination; and (b) foster a healthy experience for all children and youths within the school setting. Moreover, it is crucial that school social workers “look at the attitudes of the community and larger society towards refugees and immigrants. Schools do not operate in a vacuum, but instead mirror the larger society” (Office of Refugee Resettlement [ORR], 2016, p. 2).

Xenophobia and School Socialization

Within the public school K–12 setting, youths engage in the development of friendships and the building of social networks for the purpose of fostering healthy psychosocial development and gaining social support (Tsai, 2006). Within schools, individual acceptance in the building of social networks is based on racial–ethnic identity and the assimilation and integration process (Tsai, 2006). Xenophobia is a learned behavior based on a “generalized dislike or fear of strangers or foreigners whereas racism is a specific dislike for people from a different race” (Donovan, 2011, para. 6). Given that Latinos are the fastest growing ethnic group within the United States, with the projection that this ethnic group will be the majority of citizens within the country by 2050, expressions of xenophobia heard in the political and news arenas are often echoed in K–12 settings. A 2013 study by the National Center for Education Statistics revealed that 26 percent of Latino children live in fear of peer abuse and bullying (Tejeda, 2014). The challenge is greatest in areas where Latino schoolchildren are in the minority of children within a school setting. A lack of English proficiency—which is not the norm for second-generation children of immigrant families—is a barrier to healthy socialization and psychosocial functioning in school (Capps et al., 2016). Tsai's (2006) investigation of Taiwanese immigrant youths experiencing xenophobia in school determined that “the English as a Second Language program inadvertently perpetuates the immigrants’ sense of ‘otherness’ and increases the odds of their becoming targets of discrimination” (p. 285).

Immigrant Bullying

The term “immigrant bullying” has emerged to connote the situation in which bullies target and make derogatory references to an immigrant's status through verbal abuse and taunts, social manipulation, and even physical aggression (Donovan, 2011). School-age Latino immigrant children from families with undocumented parents are at a greater risk of victimization based on cultural differences, levels of language proficiency, misunderstanding in the development of peer relations, and school climate. Research on interventions for immigrant and refugee children facing bullying in school as influenced by their immigration status is lacking. According to Mthethwa-Sommers and Kisiara (2015), “a social context such as a school is a prime setting for bullying as students interact with each other on a daily basis” (para. 3). In addition, students from refugee backgrounds are bullied due to “nationality, race, religion, and different cultural norms” (Mthethwa-Sommers & Kisiara, 2015, para. 5). It would appear that immigrant youths’ experiences are no different. These children are at risk for social relation problems and psychological difficulties such as anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, and early school withdrawal. However, ORR (2016) has provided an excellent online publication (http://www.brycs.org/documents/upload/bullying.pdf) that can assist school-based professionals in addressing bullying issues and facilitating health adjustment and school integration for refugee and immigrant children and youths. This online document contains research findings on best practices in the reduction of immigrant bullying in K–12 schools and identifies available resources for school-based personnel working with immigrant and refugee children and their families.

Implications for School Social Work Practice

School social workers should be versed in identifying and tackling challenges within school climates that cultivate the bullying of immigrant youths. There are two categories of bullying that occur in schools, based on a youth's (1) group membership and (2) individual characteristics; school social workers should be prepared to identify and handle both types (Mthethwa-Sommers & Kisiara, 2015). Students should understand early warning signs of bullying and have easy access to report bully behaviors in school without fear of retaliation and biased scrutiny. School-based professionals must foster an environment where all students are encouraged and expected to achieve at their highest potential (ORR, 2016). Without engaging in political overtures, helping school-age children gain awareness about the plight of immigrant families and children is critical to shaping an anti-immigrant bullying climate in schools and the larger community. “The more empathy students have for each other, the less likely they are to bully or abuse each other. In addition, the more students identify with and understand each other, the more likely they are to reach out to help each other” and bullying is less likely to occur (ORR, 2016, p. 4).

School social workers should be aware of local, state, and national debates and policymaking information concerning Latino immigration issues. Moreover, it is important that school social workers are knowledgeable about local arrest and deportation cases, and refugee families in their area of practice. School social workers should be aware of community dynamics concerning the status of local refugee school-age children and those who have undocumented parents. They must also engage in self-awareness and introspection concerning their own political beliefs and feelings about immigration issues. Communities need unbiased information, and parents may need help understanding the dynamics surrounding local immigrant and refugee populations. Parents should be encouraged to talk with their children about their feelings and attitudes toward children of immigrants and refugee students in their schools. If we truly want a free society, such conversations are necessary. “Studies have shown that children typically learn negative racial attitudes by a combination of observing their parents['] behavior and adopting the stereotypes of their society” (Donovan, 2011, para. 9).

Schools should be a safe place for children who live in communities where deportation raids take place; the risk of trauma from witnessing a parent being arrested and deported should be minimized in schools, and there should be adult supervision that provides a sense of safety and concern for a child's well-being. Children of undocumented parents who attend public K–12 schools in the United States have similar education and career aspirations as other children and youths in the United States. Yet their school experiences are not always optimal in facilitating healthy socialization and developmental outcomes. Despite resiliency stories of immigrants persevering and overcoming socioeconomic obstacles in their lives, the reality is that children with undocumented parents score lower on standardized tests than children with authorized parents (Menjívar & Cervantes, 2016). It is therefore important that school-based personnel consider the implications for teaching and learning and the emotional well-being of children from immigrant families.

Given the set of circumstances in which children of arrested and deported family members find themselves, these children may find that the home environment is one of empathy, concern, and advocacy for family members who may be deported. Yet these same children may have a negative experience in the school environment, fueled by negative beliefs and stereotypes, where they may experience discrimination from school administrators, teachers, and peers (Rubio-Hernandez & Ayón, 2016). In such situations, children may feel reluctant to express their feelings in school and may feel isolated. Thus, school absenteeism can be a problem for Latino families with undocumented members (Capps et al., 2016). There are both internalized and externalized factors cited within the scholarly literature concerning the experiences of Latino children who may have family members arrested and deported (Capps et al., 2016; Rubio-Hernandez & Ayón, 2016). Research on adolescent Mexican immigrant families reveals that low family cohesion has been associated with depression, aggression, and poor social adjustment, whereas high cohesion may be a protective factor against delinquency and substance use in adolescents (Marsiglia, Parsai, & Kulis, 2009). As for intervention on risk factors such as substance use, in general, culturally specific approaches to prevention have demonstrated effectiveness with Latino adolescents (Kulis et al., 2005).

There may also be structural and functional problems in family life that hinder prosocial development of Latino youths with an undocumented parent. Structurally, parents who are deported may leave either a single-parent home with lower income opportunities or a home where children have no legal guardian. In addition, when undocumented parents are stressed, it may compromise their ability to parent and may affect their children's behavior (Landale et al., 2015). Undocumented immigrant parents often feel the psychological burden of not having legal status and may engage in stress-related behaviors, which are witnessed by their children. In terms of family functioning, routines and rituals may be curtailed, economic challenges may loom, and household life can become chaotic. The psychological distress of life as an undocumented immigrant results in greater mental health problems; however, these individuals may not have behavioral health insurance or seek treatment (Landale et al., 2015). In a study attempting to understand the effect of undocumented versus legal status on the mental health of involved Latino children, researchers found that “the mental health needs of children of immigrants, especially those with undocumented parents, are not adequately met and that disparities in service utilization in the Latino population may be driven by immigrant families” (Finno-Velasquez, Cardoso, Dettlaff, & Hurlburt, 2016). Often, the absence of a parent due to arrest and deportation leaves an economic burden and time constraints for the remaining parent, resulting in an unstable household with low monitoring and supervision of children's activities, and no knowledge of their children's whereabouts, particularly if the children are adolescents. Research demonstrates that parental stress due to acculturative difficulties is associated with problem behaviors in schools, trauma, or abuse of alcohol or drugs (Suarez-Orozco & Suarez-Orozco, 2001).

School social workers should be aware of issues related to trauma-informed practice and mental health challenges experienced by school-age children and youths following the deportation of a family member. Studies have demonstrated that children dealing with the trauma of a deported family member are often withdrawn and display poor academic performance in school (Rubio-Hernandez & Ayón, 2016). School-age children of deported parents often opt to stay at home due to fear of being deported, and they are hypervigilant about the possible deportation of other family members. According to MPI, children (ages three to four) of unauthorized immigrant parents are less likely to attend preschool, even when the child may be a legal resident (Capps et al., 2016). School social workers should be aware of how anti-immigrant and family deportation issues affect children's psychological development, health, and school readiness. Important to crafting any planned approaches is the necessity of collaboration with other school-based personnel. Although not specific to immigration issues, information on the basis of trauma-informed care for children and families coping with illness and injury can be found at https://www.healthcaretoolbox.org/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIrI26ifax1QIVWIezCh02PgNLEAAYAiAAEgLy3PD_BwE. Another resource is the Schools’ Toolkit for teachers and school personnel, specifically designed for intervention with refugee children in U.S. schools, which is available at http://www.brycs.org/publications/schools-toolkit.cfm.

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