Social Justice Advocacy by and for Tibetan Immigrants

Abstract

Advocacy for immigrants empowers them to fight for social justice. For Tibetan immigrants this struggle for justice inside their home country has been part of their U.S. immigration experience. They have also been part of New York City immigrant coalitions that are advocating for basic services lost during the 1996 Welfare Reform. The need for more equable access to education is also addressed. Finally, the harshness of expedited removal of asylum seekers needs to be supplanted by procedures that safeguard human rights.     

Working with Caribbean Immigrants After the World Trade Center Tragedy

SUMMARY

Caribbean immigrants were among those transfixed by the destruction and human suffering caused by the World Trade Center tragedy. An emergent cliché is that life will never be the same after September 11th. This study explores the issues that impact the health and well-being of English-speaking Caribbean immigrants and challenges social workers to reassess their intervention with immigrant populations in the Post 9/11 era.     

Mexican Immigrants

Abstract

Social Work's history is embedded in this profession's service and commitment to immigrant populations. This new century presents itself with a new mixture of immigrants who come to United States (U.S.) shores seeking a better life. The challenge to social workers is to be well-versed in social policy, human behavior, and practice realms related to serving these immigrants. Schools of social work must insure that curriculum reflects the needs and situations of this new mix of immigrants. One of the largest groups in this mix are those immigrants from Mexico. Of particular concern is the adaptation of Mexican and other Latino immigrants who come to this country without documentation. Social workers have an ethical responsibility to serve these clients in a culturally competent and informed manner. They must keep updated on immigration policy and entitlement or eligibility issues that mitigate these immigrants' ability to survive.     

Coping in the Aftermath of the World Trade Center Tragedy

Abstract

Regardless of immigrant status, citizenship or allegiance, all have been consumed by the magnitude of human devastation which occurred in the United States on September 11, 2001. People who were killed or traumatized came from myriad countries. Yet many in the immigrant community appear to be among the newest casualties of terrorism in the wake of the disaster. This article examines how the World Trade Center tragedy affected the social and psychological well-being of immigrants and the implications for human services.     

“Murderers,Rapists, and Bad Hombres”: Deconstructing the Immigration-Crime Myths

ABSTRACT

Immigration control is at the center of the political debate and it is an important component of the Trump administration agenda. Restrictive immigration policies have expanded under the current administration justified in rhetoric that portrays immigrants as criminals and threats to public safety. This article presents the different mythologies surrounding the immigration and crime link and critically appraise the empirical evidence investigating the relationship between immigration and crime. The review provides ample evidence contradicting the commonly held belief that immigration increases crime. At the macro-level, research shows that immigrant communities have no higher crime rates than non-immigrant communities and that sanctuary cities do not foster crime. At the micro-level, research shows that neither immigrants in general nor undocumented immigrants, in particular, engage in more criminal behavior than non-immigrants. In fact, evidence seems to suggest the opposite. Despite researchers largely agreeing that the portrait of immigrants as a threat is not founded in empirical reality, the consequences of the immigrant threat narrative and the policies they promote are all too real.     

Achieving the American Dream

Abstract

As of March 2003, the immigrant population in the United States (US) has reached 33.5 million individuals. Finding a way out of poverty is very difficult for many immigrants due to both individual and institutional barriers to savings and asset accumulation. Given that the primary sources of wealth among native-born households is through homeownership, it is only fitting that foreign-born households would also wish to achieve the “American Dream.” This paper outlines significant supports and barriers to savings and, more importantly, homeownership among US immigrants. Several suggestions for asset-based policy development for immigrants are also included in the discussion. By examing these concepts, policy practitioners can learn how to improve economic well-being for current immigrants and future generations of Americans.     

“If You Want to Be Russian Go to the United States”

Abstract

The latest and largest group of Russian immigrants arrived in the United States after 1983, when the Soviet Union collapsed. This was the first time in over seventy years that Russia's Jews were allowed to leave Russia. Unlike many other immigrants, this group had lived in a country where little or no contact had been allowed with the outside world. Not unlike Plato's characters living in a cave, the Russian Jews saw the outside world only as it had been portrayed in Russian propaganda. Mistrust of the Soviet regime led to fantasies and confusion about it.

Understanding this group of immigrants requires knowing something of Jewish life in Russia during the last hundred years. In an enclosed, totalitarian, oppressive society, individuals developed character traits that were necessary for survival. Some of these will be discussed in this article. Lack of knowledge on the part of the immigrants as well as on the part of American human services professionals has often led to culture shock for both groups. Misunderstandings, unrealistic expectations, and difficulties with language have caused frustration, anger, and hurt.

Increased cultural knowledge has been necessary to open up communication between immigrant clients and American service providers. Many signs have begun to point the way to different attitudes and greater     

Psychosocial Considerations in Working with the Chinese Immigrant

Abstract

Asian Americans have been the fastest growing segment of the United States population. Additionally, there is a continual influx of both legal and undocumented Chinese immigrants as well. Providers of social and health services, particularly in the public sector, have been coming into increasing contact with these individuals who bring with them a complex and multi-faceted history and background. The purpose of this paper is to highlight some of the psychosocial considerations when working with this population and some of the challenges encountered.

The Chinese immigrant's migration history and acculturation experience need to be appreciated within his or her cultural framework. Challenges facing the treatment of the Chinese immigrant include language barrier, shortage of bilingual staff and the associated difficulties in interpretation. Public education and outreach efforts have been targeting stigma reduction and developing primary prevention activities. The predicament service providers face when working with the undocumented aliens is underscored. A case illustration is included.     

New Hispanic Migration and HIV Risk in New York

Abstract

This paper reports on research designed to assess access to care by Latino immigrant populations in the New York area. A qualitative approach and methods were employed, involving focus groups with PWAs and affected men and women from Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Central America to explore the perceptions, beliefs, experience and knowledge of HIV care issues and the issues affecting health-seeking behavior. Among the data collected to provide context, depth and detail to the issue of access and utilization of services, was the detailed information on migration and HIV risk reported here.

A total of 57 men and women participated, ranging in age from 19-61. Results included information on migration patterns, obstacles for Latino immigrants living in the U.S., social networks, community resources, knowledge of HIV/AIDS, risk behavior and access to information. Data support the conclusion that to be effective in reaching and providing services to these immigrant groups, it is crucial to understand the environment from which they come and the impact of immigration. Poverty; repressive governments; lack of education/literacy; ethnicity, class; color-based stigma; and cultural norms are crucial factors in determining their attitudes, motivations, decisions and behavior. The key elements for the provision of services to this population appear to be those which build on cultural norms and which network human and institutional resources.     

Ethiopian taxicab drivers: forming an occupational niche in the US Capital

ABSTRACT

This paper analyzes the relative roles of cultural and structural factors in the emergence and solidification of taxi driving as an ethnic occupational niche among Ethiopian immigrants in the Washington DC metropolitan area within the wider context of globalization and immigrant integration. An ethnic occupational niche is the concentration and specialization of members of an ethnic group in a particular occupational activity. Using data from the US Census Bureau and in-depth interviews with 25 (male) Ethiopian cab drivers and three Ethiopian cab company owners, it examines the factors that affected the entrance of first-generation Ethiopian immigrants in this occupation since the 1980s. This research demonstrates that mixed embeddedness or the interplay of structural factors such as blocked mobility as well as cultural factors such as the strong social networks that exist among Ethiopian immigrants were important in the induction of new immigrants into taxicab driving. The demographic composition of the Washington metropolitan area and policies of the DC Taxicab Commission that allow for fairly easy entry of new drivers in the taxicab business also facilitated the emergence of this occupational niche.     

Newly Arrived West Indian Adolescents

Abstract

This study explores patterns of adjustment among newly arrived West Indian adolescents. In particular, it focuses on the concurrent developmental and cultural transitions of immigration and adolescence. Barriers to adjustment and patterns of identity formation are explored and discussed within the context of a typological developmental model. Findings of this study are based on the responses of 25 newly arrived adolescents from six Caribbean countries regarding their adjustment to New York City schools. The data analysis identifies various structural and immigration-based factors, which challenge the social and psychological adjustment of new immigrant adolescents. It highlights the effect of culture and immigration on attachment to school and society and supports the need for increased social work intervention in mediating between homes and schools of new immigrants.     

Health Services Considerations Amongst Immigrant Populations

Abstract

The foreign-born population comprised 11.5% of the U.S. population in 2002. Immigration to the U.S. has grown substantially and continues to grow. A close examination of the immigration data shows that immigrant community in the U.S. is not homogeneous and in fact is very diverse both within itself and from the native-born population. U.S. Census Bureau data reveal that these differences create pockets of divergent populations within the country. How these populations assimilate into the U.S. healthcare system is not clearly understood. Cultural values, beliefs, and practices often juxtapose the immigrant to the healthcare system. Religious differences coupled with educational and income disparities add to the challenge of developing and implementing healthcare programs. This paper concludes with suggestions for more research in healthcare to immigrants.     

Understanding Immigration and Psychological Development

Abstract

Approximately one in five children in the U.S. are born to immigrant families in which at least one parent is foreign-born. Existing theoretical frameworks suggest that immigration experiences can increase acculturative stress and lead to developmental psycholopathology in immigrant children. These models, however, do not account for levels in the environment that trigger this stress and/or serve as forms of resilience. Drawing from Bronfenbrenner's multilevel, bioecological model of development, this paper presents a framework that charts environmental processes which generate or buffer acculturative stress and, therefore, mediate the impact of immigration on psychological well-being. Empirical research shows that Mexican immigrants, on the whole, fare better than U.S.-born groups in terms of mental health outcomes. These results are explained in the context of the presented theoretical model. Though further research is needed, preliminary evidence suggests that encouraging “enculturation,” as opposed to “acculturation,” has positive mental health repercussions for Mexican American children. Further research using the presented theoretical framework as well as policies and practices that incorporate and leverage the cultural strengths of Mexican immigrant children should be pursued.     

West Indians in New York

Abstract

The process by which diverse ethnic groups from around the world blended into a unique civilization called the United States of America has provided insight into how mass immigration impacts on the development of human societies. This study explored the economic, educational, and social integration of a group of 409 first generation West Indian immigrants into the fabric of the society in New York City. It used the self-reports of those who were born and had worked in the West Indies, and had migrated and lived for several years in New York. The survey asked about their economic and educational status in the West Indies, compared with their current socio-economic profile, in order to determine the degree and quality of their social mobility. The criterion variables economic integration and experiencing problems of living in the United States of America were associated with nine input factors: age, citizenship, education, gender, income, length of residence, marital status, occupation, and reason for migrating to the United States.     

Immigration to Portugal

Abstract

A peripheral West European country with a medium-sized population, Portugal experienced since the late 1990s a radical change in its migration trends, with growing and constant immigration flows. Not only the number of legal immigrants duplicated, but also the profile of immigrants changed and diversified. As a result, Portugal's public policies were challenged, and new social questions emerged. In particular, both public and private bodies have to deal with an increasing segmentation of the composition of immigration and of the labor market employing immigrants. Portugal still has not opted clearly for a model of immigration, and adaptation to these changes promises not to be easy, especially because the Portuguese society is simultaneously facing tensions deriving from its own     

Immigration and the Remaking of New York

Abstract

The 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act abolished quotas that favored European immigrants, and for the first time placed all countries on an equal footing. The law resulted in increased overall immigration, and altered the sources of immigrants to the U.S. Since 1970, New York City has absorbed 2.6 million immigrants, primarily from non-European sources, who have dramatically altered the City's racial/Hispanic mix. Using immigration and birth records, as well as data from decennial censuses, this paper examines immigration to New York and assesses the demographic impact of these flows on the City's population.

Current immigrant flows have noticeably increased the ethnic diversity within the major race/Hispanic groups. This is largely due to increases in refugee flows, and to recent changes in immigration law that allow for “diversity” visas, which are aimed at countries that are under-represented in immigration flows to the U.S. Diversity immigration has provided New York with a continuing flow of new groups, most recently from Bangladesh, Mexico, Ghana, Nigeria, and Senegal, who have established enclaves in many of the City's neighborhoods. The increasing diversity poses serious challenges for social service and health care professionals, who need to devise new strategies to deal with the disparate socioeconomic backgrounds, cultures, and belief systems of new ethnic groups. This is especially important given that New York's ethnic mix will continue to be churned, especially by way of diversity immigration and refugee flows from all parts of the globe.     

The Dotbuster Effect on Indo-American Immigrants

Abstract

Immigrants today make up 14 percent of the U.S. workforce (Closing the Immigrant Skills Gap, n.d.), and, of these, a good proportion have arrived from Africa. Although Africans started coming to United States predominantly as students after the 1960s post-colonial era, their numbers have dramatically increased since the beginning of the 1990s. The influx of African immigrants to the United States in the last two decades especially after the end of the Cold War era of the early 1990s has been phenomenal. According to figures from the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS-now the Office of Homeland Security), the number of African immigrants to the United States has more than quadrupled in the last two decades, from 109,733 between 1961 and 1980 to 531,832 between 1981 and 2000 (Takougang, n.d.).     

Strengthening the Link

Abstract

Through exploration of definitional issues and current migration realities, this article discusses ways in which emphasis on the international dimensions of social work with immigrants and refugees offers opportunities to improve practice and to enhance the relevance of international social work to the profession. The international character of present day migration is illustrated through discussion of the transnational family and the economic and other relationships that tie immigrants to their countries of origin. The paper concludes with recommendations for increased cross-national professional collaboration.     

Chapter 6. Psychosocial Stressors,Psychiatric Diagnoses and Utilization of Mental Health Services Among Undocumented Immigrant Latinos

Abstract

The combined effects of minority status, specific ethnic group experiences (political, economic, trauma and immigration history), poverty, and illegal status pose a set of unique psychiatric risks for undocumented Latinos in the United States. Restrictive legislation and policy measures have limited access to health care, and other basic human services to undocumented immigrants and their children throughout the nation. However, little is known about the patterns of mental health care use, psychiatric diagnoses and psychosocial problems prevalent among the undocumented who do succeed in presenting to clinical settings and to the mental health sector. To begin to address the need for further understanding in this area, we completed a clinical chart review of 197 outpatient adult psychiatric charts in a Latino mental health outpatient treatment program located in an urban hospital system.

We compared the diagnoses and mental health care use of undocumented Latino immigrants (15%) with that of documented (73%) and US born Latinos (12%) treated in this clinical setting. The undocumented Latinos in our study were more likely to have a diagnosis of anxiety, adjustment and alcohol abuse disorders. The undocumented also had a significantly greater mean number of concurrent psychosocial stressors (mean number = 5, p < .001) ascompared to documented immigrants and US born groups, which both had a mean number of 3 stressors identified at evaluation. The undocumented were more likely to have psychosocial problems related to occupation, access to healthcare and the legal system. However, the undocumented had a lower mean number of total mental health appointments attended (mean visits = 4.3, p < .001) in which to address these stressors as compared to documented immigrants (mean visits = 7.9) and US born (mean visits = 13.3). In terms of other previous mental health service use, the undocumented group had lower rates of lifetime inpatient and outpatient treatment use.

The results of this study suggest the importance of early assessment of psychosocial stressors, substance use and barriers to care when treating undocumented immigrants. Although all Latino groups included in this investigation demonstrated numerable concurrent stressors, our investigation highlights the particular importance of accessible social services and supports for addressing psychosocial stressors in the lives of undocumented patients. Our results stress the importance of reexamining policies, that restrict access to social services and healthcare for the undocumented. Our results also suggest the importance of culturally appropriate evaluation and treatment of substance abuse disorders as well as addressing other psychological and behavioral responses to multiple stressors among undocumented individuals.     

THE THIRD SECTOR AND IMMIGRANT ABSORPTION: LESSONS FROM THE ISRAELI EXPERIENCE

This paper deals with the role of two third sector organizations in immigrant absorption in Israel during the mid-1980s through 1993. The Jewish Agency, a non-governmental, voluntary, non-profit “public institution” funded by Diaspora Jewry had responsibility for immigrants during their first year in the country. It represented world Jewry and Israeli political parties. A second third sector institution, the quasi-public party controlled state religious school system played a significant role in the education of Ethiopian immigrant children.

The paper evaluates their impact on the absorption of immigrants. To what extent did these third sector agencies pursue their own agendas and or serve the immigrants? The paper also examines the influence of Israel's political-administrative systems on the third sector. How unique is the Israeli experience? Hopefully the findings will shed new light on the politics of collaboration with the third sector in contemporary Israel.

Evidence presented here suggests that third sector absorbing agencies often pursued their own interests at the expense of the immigrants. The paper also reveals the complexity of the political and administrative character of Israel's third sector. Finally, the analysis shows the importance of political-administrative systems for understanding third sector collaboration in Israel.