U.S. public child-serving institutions are designed to create opportunities for all children to thrive in environments where they experience positive and healthy development, setting them up for a productive adulthood. The U.S. child welfare system is charged with the protection of children. When children experience threats to safety, the child welfare system intervenes on their behalf to provide targeted services that are aimed at preserving and strengthening families. When this is not possible, children are placed in other caregiving arrangements. The Center on Immigration and Child Welfare supports research aimed at improving programs and policies related to the well-being of immigrant children and families involved in the public child welfare system. Our priorities for research align with our vision to see children of immigrants thrive in their communities and families in the U.S.
Immigrant families in the U.S. are as heterogeneous as the demographic makeup of our country. The members of a single family often have different immigration statuses, different migration journeys, different reasons for migration, and different needs in the U.S.
Immigration policy in the U.S. often creates substantial stress and burden for children and families. Pre-migration, migration, and settlement experiences are discrete events, but all impact child and family well-being:
- Pre-migration circumstances. Decisions to migrate are driven by economic, political, environmental, and social factors. Despite fluctuations in migratory flows, a complex set of factors has driven migration from areas such as Central America in particular since 2014. Violence carried out by gangs continue to overwhelm the Northern Triangle countries, which have some of the highest murder rates in the world. Poverty and lack of economic opportunity are also key reasons for emigration to the U.S. Another major reason for migration to the U.S. is family reunification. The specific reasons why immigrant families and children leave their country of origin—or are forced to leave—have implications for their safety and well-being upon arrival.
- Migration experience. The migratory experience itself can be extremely traumatic, particularly in transit countries. Robbery, assault, rape, and kidnapping are common experiences along the migratory journey. The human rights abuses experienced by children are particularly concerning; many arrive to the U.S. severely traumatized. Many children also migrate multiple times, increasing risk of threats to safety and mental health.
- Settlement. The social, economic, and political conditions of the places where immigrant families settle also have implications for child safety and well-being. Federal laws govern who has legal status to work and access to public benefits. Local and state laws can affect access to benefits such as health insurance, safety net programs, and child care for children, as well as the ability to drive and afford college, which affect the opportunities that families have to promote the healthy development of their children.
The policies driving the immigration and child welfare systems are evidence of our country’s complex and sometimes contradictory values in how deserving immigrant groups are defined and the best interests of children are determined. U.S. immigration policies are rapidly changing, creating circumstances for children and families newly arrived to the U.S. that are overwhelming and impose long-term challenges to their well-being. Recent increases in the detention and deportation of immigrants, and the accompanying anti-immigrant rhetoric, have destabilized many immigrant communities and families. Following the 2016 presidential election, the threats towards immigrants intensified a culture of fear and trauma among immigrant children and families, decreasing enrollment in supportive social programs, which may prolong stress and result in negative health and mental health outcomes.
Most children of immigrants served by the U.S. child welfare system are reported for child abuse or neglect, preventable problems with traumatic consequences that persist into adolescence and adulthood. However, with the recent rise of immigration enforcement activities, a growing number of immigrant children in contact with the child welfare system may potentially be unaccompanied minors and children separated from deported parents. While the circumstances that bring unaccompanied minors to the attention of the child welfare system are different from traditional reasons for child welfare involvement, many of them are also traumatized by experiences that are often preventable.
The principles of prevention inform our framework for research, with the goal to improve the health, safety, and well-being of all immigrant children and children of immigrants in contact with the child welfare system. Research to inform the primary prevention of child welfare system involvement seeks to expose a broad segment of immigrant children and their families to prevention measures that reduce and prevent involvement before it ever occurs. Secondary prevention research aims to reduce negative impacts of child welfare system involvement after contact has occurred to mitigate further trauma and redress the circumstances that lead to involvement. Research on tertiary prevention strategies seeks to buffer the impact of child welfare system involvement in ongoing or unresolved circumstances by helping children of immigrants and their families to find long-term solutions to stabilize and improve their functioning and quality of life.
Affiliated Researchers
Jodi Berger Cardoso, PhD, LCSW
Associate Professor, Graduate School of Social Work, University of Houston
Dr. Berger Cardoso’s uses mixed methods research to study the impact of migration, immigration enforcement, and family separation on the mental health of Latino families. She is currently working on testing an attachment based intervention to address parent-child relational problems in Latino families that have experienced family separation and other migration related traumas.
Thomas M. Crea, PhD, MSW
Professor, Chair of Global Practice, Assistant Dean of Global Programs, School of Social Work, Boston College
Dr. Crea’s research interests focus on the intersections of forced migration, mental health, child welfare, and strengthening humanitarian aid and international development programs.
Kerri Evans, PhD, LCSW
Assistant Professor, School of Social Work, University of Maryland Baltimore County
Dr. Evans’ research focuses on unaccompanied children and other forced migrants. She covers a wide range of topics due to her focus on applied research and agency partnerships. Dr. Evans uses both qualitative and quantitative methods to identify best practices and opportunities for improvements in social service practice, and to promote policy change.
Monica Faulkner, PhD, LMSW
Research Associate Professor, Steve Hicks School of Social Work, The University of Texas at Austin
Director, Texas Institute for Child and Family Wellbeing
Dr. Faulkner completes program evaluation for child maltreatment prevention programs, mixed methods research on undocumented Latino families and deportation impacts, needs assessments of child welfare systems, and research on the overlap between child welfare system involvement and immigration.
Megan Finno-Velasquez, PhD, LMSW
Associate Professor, School of Social Work, New Mexico State University
Director, Center on Immigration and Child Welfare
Dr. Finno-Velasquez’s research focuses on the impact of immigration policy on child welfare system experiences of immigrant families, and maltreatment prevention in immigrant communities. She uses quantitative methods for large survey and administrative data analyses, as well as qualitative methods.
Mary Lehman Held, PhD., LCSW
Associate Professor, Assistant Dean and MSSW Program Director, Nashville campus, School of Social Work, University of Tennessee Knoxville
Dr. Held’s scholarship centers on strengthening knowledge related to risk and protective factors among immigrant and non-immigrant Latinx communities to inform service provision and policymaking in new destination states. Her work is situated in the current sociopolitical climate of both immigrant-sending nations and the United States. Informed by practice experience in Texas and Central America, Dr. Held designs quantitative and qualitative studies to gain more in-depth insight from Latinxs and service providers to assess needs, the capacity to address these needs, and gaps in training for the current and future workforce.
Robert G. Hasson III, PhD, LICSW
Assistant Professor, School of Social Work, Providence College
Robert’s research focuses on the intersection of child welfare and immigration, with a goal of informing the development of clinical interventions and polices to serve children and adolescents exposed to trauma as a result of separation from caregivers or forced migration.
Robin Hernandez-Mekonnen, PhD, MSW
Associate Professor of Social Work Faculty, Child Welfare Education Institute, School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Stockton University
Dr. Hernandez-Mekonnen’s work focuses on understanding how the child welfare workforce interprets their mission of safety, permanency, and well-being with work with immigrant families, and emphasizes the importance of identifying and advocating for vital resources and policies to support immigrant children and families. Her research expertise includes quantitative and qualitative methods, with a preference for mixed methods designs.
Michelle Johnson-Motoyama, PhD, MSW
Associate Professor, The Ohio State University, College of Social Work
Dr. Johnson-Motoyama’s scholarship focuses on the use of policy to prevent child maltreatment and reduce social disparities in child welfare, with an emphasis on Latinx populations. She currently leads a national, longitudinal study that examines the effects of changes in economic and social safety net policies on child maltreatment during the Great Recession, and beyond. She also serves as Associate Editor for Children and Youth Services Review, one of the field’s premier child welfare journals.
Heather Koball, PhD
Co-Director, National Center for Children in Poverty, Bank Street Graduate School of Education
Dr. Koball’s research focuses on the impact of state immigration enforcement policies and state expansions of public benefits for immigrants on the well-being of children of immigrants. Using rigorous statistical methods, her work has shown that children are more likely to receive preventive health care if their undocumented immigrant parents have access to driver’s licenses. Similarly, her previous research demonstrates that states’ participation in federal immigration enforcement leads to greater material hardship among immigrant families, with no benefit for U.S. born families.
Tatiana Londono, PhD, MSSW
Assistant Professor of Social Welfare, University of California Los Angeles
Dr. Londoño’s scholarship focuses on the mental health and psychosocial well-being of Latine/x immigrant youth and their families, with an emphasis on the experiences and impact of (im)migration. Specifically, her work explores how Latine/x immigrant youth and families navigate and adapt to experiences of immigration enforcement, detention, and deportation. Currently, she incorporates her research into policy briefs and trauma-informed training material for practitioners working with immigrants. Her goal is to inform and develop community-based interventions for Latine/x immigrant families.
Kristina Lovato, PhD, MSW
Assistant Professor of Social Welfare, University of California, Berkeley
Dr. Lovato’s research focuses on enhancing child and family well-being among immigrant families, particularly those at risk of immigration enforcement and child welfare involvement. Dr. Lovato’s current work uses qualitative approaches to examine how Latino youth cope with family disruption following the deportation of a parent, and how schools and social service systems respond to the needs of these youths and their families.
G. Cristina Mora, PhD
Associate Professor of Sociology and Co-Director of the Institute of Governmental Studies, University of California, Berkeley
Dr. Mora’s research focuses mainly on immigration, categorization, and racial and political attitudes in the United States. Her first book, Making Hispanics, was published by the University of Chicago Press and provides the first historical account of the rise of the “Hispanic/Latino” category in the United States. Mora has received numerous awards from the American Sociological Association, and her research has been the subject of various national media segments in venues like the Atlantic, the New Yorker, NPR, and Latino USA. In 2020, she helped to oversee the largest survey on Covid-19 and partisan politics in California and published some of the state’s first briefs and academic articles on the subject. She is currently working on her next book, California Color Lines, which examines inequality and political attitudes in California.
Caitlin Patler, PhD
Associate Professor of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley Goldman School of Public Policy
Dr. Patler is a faculty affiliate of the Berkeley Interdisciplinary Migration Initiative and the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment. Dr. Patler’s research addresses the origins and reproduction of inequality in the U.S. through an examination of immigration laws, legal statuses, and law enforcement institutions as drivers of socioeconomic and health disparities. Dr. Patler also studies the spillover and intergenerational consequences of legal vulnerability for the health and wellbeing of young adults, youth, and children.
Maryam Rafieifar, PhD, MSc, MA
Assistant Professor of Social Work, University of Texas at Arlington
Dr. Rafieifar’s research focuses on disenfranchised immigrant families and children through community-based participatory methods. She studies the impact of immigration enforcement policies at federal and state levels on the health and well-being of mixed-status immigrant families and their children. In her recent project, she is exploring the impact of immigration-related stress on parenting practices and child maltreatment risk. Her translational objective is to mitigate the effects of immigration enforcement on trauma among children born to immigrant families by examining community-based initiatives.
Benjamin J. Roth, PhD
Associate Professor, College of Social Work, University of South Carolina
Dr. Roth’s research is on immigrant children/youth and the various axes of stratification that shape their well-being and development. His recent work on legal status focuses on youth with DACA and unaccompanied children, with a particular focus on how the physical, social, and political geography of where immigrant youth grow up influences their life chances.
Susan Schmidt, DSW, LGSW
Associate Professor & Field Director, Luther College
Dr. Schmidt’s research explores the intersection of immigration and child welfare issues, with a particular focus on unaccompanied minors, root causes of migration, and the impact of US policies and procedures on immigrant children, youth and families.
Zayna Lyon, MSW
PhD Student, Schar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University
Zayna Lyon’s research is on international migration and inequality. Her research interests include push and pull factors of migration for undocumented immigrants and unaccompanied children, immigrant integration outcomes, and the effects of immigration policy on child welfare outcomes for unaccompanied children and undocumented immigrant families.
Research Priorities
Primary Prevention
- Research that examines the impact and costs of anti-immigrant policies, heightened immigration enforcement actions, and resulting immigrant experiences (such as discrimination and fear, and parental detention/deportation) on child well-being and access to public services and supports for children.
- Research evaluating community and local responses to the needs of immigrant families in the context of heightened immigration enforcement, to identify, for example, how health outreach workers, community-based organizations, and other trusted outreach strategies can be effective in preventing child welfare system involvement.
- Research that delineates the process and effectiveness of family safety plans (i.e. deportation planning) in preventing risks to child safety and involvement with the child welfare system.
- Research examining the uses of safety net policies and programs for child maltreatment prevention in the immigrant population, including the effects of proposed changes to public charge definition on the use of the social safety net among legal immigrants.
- Research that evaluates strategies to prevent child maltreatment and reduce stress due to immigration-related experiences.
Secondary Prevention
- Research that delineates etiologies and typologies of child abuse and neglect among children of immigrants in the U.S.
- Research that examines pathways of children of immigrants into the child welfare system as a result of parental deportation
- Research that examines pathways of unaccompanied minors into the child welfare system
- Research on interventions to prevention entry into foster care that are culturally adapted or designed for children of immigrants and their families
Tertiary Prevention
- Research that examines the impact of child and parent immigration status on child welfare system decision-making and child trajectories through the child protective services and foster care system
- Researching evaluating the impact of state child welfare policies related to immigration issues on permanency outcomes for children of immigrants.
- Research that examines relationships between child welfare system capacity in language, culture, and immigration expertise and outcomes for children of immigrants
- Research that evaluates promising approaches, best practice models, and policy implementation designed to better serve children of immigrants in the custody of the child welfare system.
