Resources

• Paying the Price: The Impact of Immigration Raids on America's Children
  Immigration and Customs Enforcement has intensified immigration enforcement activities by conducting several large-scale worksite raids across the country. From an in-depth study of three communities—Greeley, CO, Grand Island, NE and New Bedford, MA—this report from the Urban Institute details the impact of these worksite raids on the well-being of children. The report provides detailed recommendations to a variety of stakeholders to help mitigate the harmful effects of worksite raids on children.

• The Future of Children: Children of Immigrant Families
  The Summer 2004 issue of The Future of Children focuses on the growing number of immigrant families in this country, and the challenges faced by their children as the next generation of Americans. For the most part, children of immigrants benefit from having healthy, intact families, strong work ethic and aspirations, and a cohesive community of fellow immigrants to ease their transition. But they also often face many obstacles, including poverty, discrimination, limited language skills, and lack of access to quality health care and education resources. Even though most children of immigrants are born in this country, and therefore are entitled to services and benefits the same as every other U.S. citizen, they often are not able to take advantage of these supports. As a result, though children of immigrants may start out with good health and high educational aspirations, these strengths can dissipate by adolescence. At each stage of their development, further efforts are needed to ensure that children in immigrant families have access to the resources they need to help them stay on positive pathways to success.

• Enhancing State Child Welfare Services for Migrating Children
  A report on the roundtable discussion held in April 2005 at the 15th National Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect. Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), who have specialized in serving these children for over 25 years, convened this Roundtable to provide an opportunity for regional, state and other child welfare providers to share their experiences and expertise. In addition to discussing the issues and challenges most systems are experiencing in providing care to these children, participants shared promising practices and recommendations for the field.

• Migration: A Critical Issue for Child Welfare
  In July 2006 American Humane and Loyola University Chicago Graduate School of Social Work hosted a roundtable to discuss migration in the Americas and its impact on child well-being and child welfare policy, systems, and services. This report presents the results of the roundtable discussion and summarizes the emerging issues that participants identified as requiring attention by child welfare systems in order to facilitate positive child welfare outcomes of child safety, permanency of placements and relationships, and child and family well-being. Suggestions for further research and implications for policy and practice are also presented.

• Standards for the Custody, Placement and Care; Legal Representation; and Adjudication of Unaccompanied Alien Children in the United States
  These standards from the American Bar Association Commission on Immigration reject an approach that treats children merely as “adults in miniature” in favor of one which recognizes the special needs of children.

• International Issues in Dependency Court Cases
  The February 2008 of the Judges' Page Newsletter from National CASA addresses the complex issues that face judges and other child welfare professionals dealing with international issues in dependency court cases. It includes several articles on issues facing immigrant families and children and child welfare systems.

• Division of Unaccompanied Children's Services: Efforts to Serve Children
  This report from the Office of the Inspector General assess the placement, care, and release of unaccompanied alien children serviced by DUCS within the Administration for Children and Families.

• Unaccompanied Alien Children: Policies and Issues
  This report from the Congressional Research Services was prepared in 2007 for members and committees of Congress.

Resources from the States

• New Mexico: Working with Undocumented and Mixed Status Immigrant Children and Families
  This bulletin outlines best practices and describes the roles of caseworkers, judges, attorneys, court staff, parents, youth, foster parents and CASA volunteers.

• New York City: Immigration and Language Guidelines for Child Welfare Staff
  The purpose of this pamphlet from the New York City Administration for Children's Services is to provide staff with a brief overview of immigration and language issues for the purpose of maximizing child welfare services to meet the diverse needs of the city's immigrant communities.

Teleconference

• Children Left Behind: What Happens to Children After Immigration Raids?
  Panelists in this Urban Institute discussion consider who is responsible for protecting children affected by immigration raids and what policies and procedures could alleviate the negative consequences on young people.

NRCFCPPP Information Packet

• Cultural Sensitivity With Immigrant Families and their Children by Inga Feldman (May 2003)

• Bridging Refugee Youth and Children's Services
  BRYCS is a national technical assistance project working to broaden the scope of information and collaboration among service providers - in order to strengthen services to refugee youth, children and their families. The Publications section of its website contains several useful titles regarding foster care, family-centered, culturally relevant practice and permanency planning for refugee children.

• Immigrants in Child Welfare - Family to Family California
  California's Family to Family Initiative has created this page, which contains both general and state-specific resources.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
Last update 04/02/08