November 2018 Newsletter

Protecting Migrant Children 7.2

Westy Egmont, Director IIL

BCSSW Professor Thomas Crea writes: “One of the most difficult political and humanitarian issues we face today in the United States is the large number of children migrating to the southern border, with and without their parents and caregivers. Service providers are in desperate need of information that can help them respond to the unique needs of these children and families once they arrive in the U.S.”

Whether we are educators, religious leaders, social workers, or activists, the burden created by Federal policies which apprehend and separate families; hold minors in detention; or within the U.S. Unaccompanied Alien Children program, lifts vulnerable youth to a national priority. ‘Protection first’ is an appropriate policy and certainly the humane and rights-based obligation of nations and actors who are likely to encounter and serve these youths.

Clinical needs are hierarchical. Social workers are hard-pressed to access youth detained after arrival. Under contract with LIRS and CCUSA, the Office of Refugee Resettlement has cared for 175,000 children, many placed in foster care, where the recruitment training and oversight are critical functions. The individual needs of children often fall to host families, educators and community agencies making trauma-informed care essential. A recent study by Jami, Underwood and Ranweiller points to the power of hope in sustaining resilience of migrating youth. In Sweden, a study notes patterns of hibernation that have been diagnosed as resignation syndrome. Such life-threatening consequences are not uncommon, even while the resilience factor of children is affirmed. The noted research this month includes hard evidence of the damage done by current immigration practices such as PTSD, internalized social withdrawal, distraction, consequences to general health and the focus necessary for education.

Further research by those in the social sciences and education is encouraged. While advocates do well to focus on the human consequences in addition to the politics creating these conditions, clinical social workers are increasingly in need of specialized training to more readily identify status and migration history related to mental health needs and to know promising practices for work with children, parents, and providers. David Murphy provides a good introduction to interventions though there are many other aspects to this work that warrant evidence-based study and dissemination. BCSSW’s Research Program on Children and Adversity studies these global needs and explores effective interventions with settled refugee youth in the U.S.

The IIL commends the academics and providers of the Center on Child Welfare and Immigration who contribute a steady focus of relevant and timely information. As a grandfather of seven, my peers may find a particular interest in the consequences of family separation for grandparents in Love Without Borders.

The New York Times covers the human anguish of children left behind. The harsh reality of the many more than half a million children who within just two years have had a family member deported or detained means that the demand for care is immediate. The numbers will continue to rise since this is a time when the policies of separation are being advocated by the White House and other federal officials. Given that over 6 million citizen children have one undocumented family member in their household, this group alone, amidst many migrant biographies, raises this issue to urgency.

All migrants experience loss, grief and the stress of acclimation to the new environment. The professional community and its funding allies have a mandate to address the welfare of children who are the most vulnerable among the vulnerable and who will suffer for a lifetime if their needs go unaddressed.