Family Decisions and Latino Emancipated Migrant Youth: A Qualitative Inquiry

Based on the latest National Agricultural Workers Survey (NAWS), there are young farmworkers ages 14 to 21 years old who account for 10% of the farmworker population. Labeled “Emancipated Migrant Youth” (EMY) because they are minors living an adult’s life without direct parental supervision, these young people provide a vantage point for studying emerging adulthood. This paper presents results from twenty semi-structured interviews with Latino male EMY ages 14 to 20. Although six distinct themes emerged, the data clearly indicate that EMY decided to migrate alone and perform farmwork to provide for their families back home.

Objectives

1) To explore the contributing factors for Latino male Emancipated Migrant Farmworker Youth to migrate to the United States.2) To explore the contributing factors for Latino male Emancipated Migrant Farmworker Youth to enter the US agricultural labor force.3) To understand the factors contributing to Emnacipated Migrant Youth (EMY)’s decision to migrate to the U.S. and perform farmwork .

Latinx DACA Recipients in Family Therapy: Policy Challenges and Resilience

This paper aims to present an overview of U.S. immigration policy, focusing specifically on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) act as it affects Latinx, and discusses clinical considerations for Couple and Family Therapists (CFTs) working with this population.  We explore how children brought to the U.S. undocumented by their parents demonstrate resilience despite living in a precarious and potentially deleterious socio-political climate.  Despite that congress has yet to provide a legislative solution for this population, Latinx DACA recipients represent the future of our country, and CFTs must be equipped to work with these young adults and their families. 

Objectives

1) Articulate at least three ways U.S. Immigration Policy affects the Latinx DACA population and their families2) Identify and implement two interventions with Latinx DACA clients in family therapy to enhance clinical effectiveness3) Explain at least four areas Latinx DACA recipients and their families demonstrate resilience 

The Problem of Illegality: “Doing” Family Under Deportation Threat

The Problem of Illegality: “Doing” Family under Deportation Threat Using a Community-based Participatory Research (CBPR) approach, we examined parenting and deportation planning among undocumented Central American mothers.  Preliminary analyses of open-ended data reveal that many mothers were concerned about their own status, and the statuses of their children. Living with threats of deportation, many mothers shared that they plan to leave their children in the care of family or friends in the U.S.; many of these chosen custodians do not have papers either. Mothers preferred to stay in the US as a family as they feared the suffering their children would endure by being separated due to deportation.

Objectives

1. Participants will gain insight into the experiences of Central American mothers parenting in the context of deportation threats.2. Participants will learn about how parents plan for potential deportation.3. Participants will learn about working with undocumented immigrant communities using a Community-based Participatory Research (CBPR) approach.

U.S. Immigration Detention and Deportation and Mexican-Origin Fathers’ Parenting Practices and Stress

Unauthorized status poses challenges for undocumented immigrant Mexican-origin parents who live in constant fear of being deported and lack access to social support services. For many Mexican-origin fathers in the U.S., a deportation can be a familiar sighting. Mexican-origin fathers, whether citizens or not, are at an increased risk of being targeted as an undocumented immigrant, not to mention, being detained and deported. Scholars studying unauthorized immigrant parents have observed barriers that infringe on parent-child bonds and on the activities that immigrant parents are able to participate in with their children. This study looks at a sample of 85 Mexican-origin fathers. Findings suggest exposure to temporary or prolonged family separations can therefore encroach on fathers’ domains of family life by specifically infringing on fathers' parenting.

Objectives

Understand how unauthorized status poses challenges for undocumented immigrant Mexican-origin parents who live in constant fear of being deported and lack access to social support services. For many Mexican-origin fathers in the U.S., a deportation can be a familiar sighting. Mexican-origin fathers, whether citizens or not, are at an increased risk of being targeted as an undocumented immigrant, not to mention, being detained and deported. Scholars studying unauthorized immigrant parents have observed barriers that infringe on parent-child bonds and on the activities that immigrant parents are able to participate in with their children.