Refugee and Immigrant Children Committee

WHO WE ARE

Illinois Childhood Trauma Coalition’s Committee on Refugee and Immigrant Children and Trauma (RIC) was founded in 2015 to address the critical, unique and growing needs of children and families from refugee and immigrant communities.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Immigration and Trauma

Refugee/immigrant children can experience traumatic stressors at various points of the immigration journey, such as preflight, flight, and post-flight. Preflight trauma refers to the events and conditions that children are exposed to in their countries of origin that often precipitate fleeing from their countries of origin.  Examples of preflight trauma can include violence; war and persecution; lack of food, water or shelter; forced labor; and disruption in or lack of access to schooling.

Trauma is also experienced during flight from home country to new country. Flight may differ in its duration and circumstances for different individuals. For instance, a child of undocumented status may have to travel in life threatening conditions for months to the United States; whereas a refugee child may be displaced in a refugee camp for years before being permanently resettled in a new country.  While the journey may look different, many refugee and immigrant children often experience similar types of trauma during their journey, including separation from family, mistreatment by authorities, and detention.

Finally, traumatic experiences can occur in the post-flight or resettlement phase once the individual has arrived to the new country. Examples of post-flight traumatic stressors can include: exposure to community violence, discrimination and hate crimes, loss of familiar community and community supports, acculturation stressors, fear of deportation, and financial hardship. Even children of immigrants and US-born children living in mixed status families can experience toxic stress related to chronic stressors related to daily fears loved ones being deported. Families that experience extended parent-child separation during the migration process are often faced with reunification challenges, such as disrupted parent-child attachment, child’s limited understanding of the reason for separation fueling feelings of anger and abandonment, and parenting difficulties.

Serving Immigrant and Refugee Children and Youth in Illinois

Needs Assessment. In 2016, RIC conducted a survey to assess service needs in refugee/immigrant communities in Illinois and inform workforce development and system-wide capacity building activities that would enhance trauma-informed care for all those who come in contact with refugee/immigrant children. Two separate surveys were sent to providers. The first targeted providers from agencies whose mission is specifically aimed at serving refugee and immigrant youth and families, and the second targeted those whose agencies serve the general population and would likely have some contact with refugee/immigrant children, youth and families. Participants included service providers in the sectors of mental health, legal aid, housing, education, employment, medical care, spiritual guidance, domestic violence, and case management.

The findings of the surveys showed the following:

* Mental health services were the most frequently identified unmet need impacting the clients served by respondents (both in their agency and in the community).

* Training in cultural responsiveness when working with immigrant/refugee children and families and in trauma-informed practices were identified as critical needs.

Cross-Task Force Collaboration on Curriculum Development.

Through partnering with the Coalition for Immigrant Mental Health and the Refugee Mental Health Task Force, RIC members contributed resources and training materials towards a participatory curriculum development effort that built off of existing ICTC workforce development materials on the impact of trauma on children generally. This multidisciplinary collaborative effort included mental health professionals, academic researchers, educators, community advocates, refugee/immigrant youth, and allies working with refugee/immigrant children and families. The curriculum development work group gathered existing materials and created new content for a public health response to mounting distress of refugee/immigrant children and families in the socio-political climate. Material for workforce development trainings was developed through an iterative feedback process. Youth of undocumented status and refugee youth provided feedback via focus groups regarding training content, as well as and strategies that adults could employ to help children and families feel welcome and safe, to succeed, and to improve their wellbeing.

IMMIGRATION TERMINOLOGY

“Alien” a legal term used to refer to any person not a citizen or national of the United States (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services)

Asylum seeker – someone who flees their own country and seeks sanctuary in another country and applies for refugee/asylum status upon arrival to the new country. This person must demonstrate that his or her fear of persecution in his/her home country is well-founded. S/he may enter the country as students, tourists, businessmen, or even in undocumented status.

Children of Immigrants: Children under 18 with at least one immigrant or foreign-born parent. Also referred to as “children in immigrant families”.

DACA – immigrant youth who were brought to the US before age 16 without authorization that qualify for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals which protects from deportation for a 2-year period. During this period, these individuals can obtain a driver’s license, SS# and work authorization. 750,000 of these youth came out of the shadows and registered with the U.S. government under this protection.

Dreamers – immigrants of undocumented status under the age of 35 seeking full or partial legalization / amnesty. Term comes from the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act that was stalemated and never passed by Congress that would have allowed people residing in the US without documentation to obtain work authorizations, SS#, and driver’s license as well as a pathway to a green card.

Immigrants – Foreign-born non-citizens who choose to leave their countries of origin with the intention of residing permanently in new country. They may come by legal or unauthorized processes. This population includes naturalized citizens, lawful permanent residents, refugees and asylees, persons on certain temporary visas or humanitarian visas (U or T visa), and the unauthorized.

Migrants – persons who leave their countries of origin in the hope of finding employment or, generally, better living conditions in the countries of their destination. They may or may not come to the US with intentions to stay, and they may go back and forth from their country of origin, seasonally.

Mixed status — Families that have members with different legal statuses – some with DACA, some citizens, some undocumented.

Refugee – a person located outside the US who has been forced to flee his or her country of origin because of war, violence, or persecution or well-founded fear of persecution due to race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion.

Unaccompanied minors – An unaccompanied alien child – child under the age of 18 who has no lawful immigration status in the United States and who enters without a parent or legal guardian in the United States to provide care and physical custody.

Undocumented status – foreign-born non-citizen residing in the U.S., having either entered without authorization or overstayed their visa

MEMBERS