Childhood Migration and Well-being:
A Framework for Understanding the
Opportunities and Challenges
Krista M. Perreira, PhD
Presented at the 17th Annual Summer Public Health Research
Videoconference on Minority Health, June 7, 2011,
www.minority.unc.edu/institute/2011/
71 Million Children in 2009:
24% Had An Immigrant Parent
40
Percent of Children with an Immigrant Parent
35
Percent Foreign-Born of Total Population
30
25
20
15
10
5
20
10
20
00
19
90
19
80
19
70
19
60
19
50
19
40
19
30
19
20
19
10
19
00
18
90
0
Source: Calculations by Passel (2010) from Decennial censuses for 1850-2000, Current
Population Surveys (CPS), and ACS data.
States with the Fastest Growing
Immigrant Populations: 20002005
Percent Growth in Foreign-Born Population, 2000-2005
48%
45%
43%
41%
41%
39%
39%
34%
32%
32%
US Avg.
16%
SC (1)
NH (2)
TN (3)
AR (4)
DE (5)
AL (6)
GA (7)
NE (8)
KY (9)
NC (10)
Source: US Census, 2000 & American Community Survey, 2005
Children of Immigrants
Settling across the US (Avg. 23%)
Percent Children of Immigrants
Source: Author’s Tabulations 2006-08 American Community Survey
Challenges in Emerging Latino and
Immigrant Settlement States
• Limited data specific to immigrant and
Latino populations
• High concentration of limited English
proficiency children and adults
• Low availability of providers with
specialized cultural competence
• Diversity among immigrants and especially
Latinos
Critical Education Concerns for
Latino Children of Immigrants
• School Readiness
• High School Dropout Rates
• College Enrollment/Completion Rates
Kindergarten School
Readiness, Reading
3rd+ Generation White
2nd Generation Mexican American
3rd+ Generation Mexican American
1st Generation Mexican American
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
Letter Recognition
Sound Recognition
Word Recognition
Source: Reardon, SF & Galindo, C. (2006), Patterns of Hispanic Students’
Mathematics and English Literacy Test Scores. Report to the National Task Force
on Early Childhood Education for Hispanics. Tempe, AZ: Arizona State University.
Kindergarten School
Readiness, Math
3rd+ Generation White
2nd Generation Mexican American
3rd+ Generation Mexican American
1st Generation Mexican American
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
Identifying Numbers
and Shapes
Understanding
Ordinality
Solving Addition and
Subtraction
Source: Reardon, SF & Galindo, C. (2006), Patterns of Hispanic Students’
Mathematics and English Literacy Test Scores. Report to the National Task Force
on Early Childhood Education for Hispanics. Tempe, AZ: Arizona State University.
High School Drop Out Rates
1st generation
2nd generation
3rd+ generation
% 18-26 year olds
(weighted)
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
Hispanic
Asian
Black
White
Source: Perreira, Mullan-Harris, & Lee (2006), Making It in America: High School
Completion among Immigrant Youth. Demography 43(3): 511-536.
% of Population with a
Bachelors Degree
1st generation*
2nd generation
3rd+ generation
* Includes adults who never attend school in US
% 25-34 year olds
(weighted)
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Hispanic
Asian
Black
White
Source: Baum, S. & Flores, S. (2011), Higher Education and Children in Immigrant
Families, Future of Children 21(1): 171-193. Based on CPS, March Supplement, 2009
Critical Health Concerns for
Latino Children of Immigrants
• Declining Health of Immigrants with Time
in the US
• Mental Health and Substance Use
• Overweight/Obesity and related conditions
(e.g., Diabetes)
• Asthma
• Access to Health Care
The Latino Experience:
Parent/Caregiver Mental Health
50%
45%
40%
35%
30%
27%
22%
25%
20%
14%
15%
10%
5%
0%
At Risk for Depression
(PHQ-9)
Experienced Trauma
Serious Symptoms of
Depression
Foreign-Born Latina Mothers
(NC LAMHA Study 2004-05, N=275)
The Latino Experience:
Adolescent Mental Health (ages 12-18)
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
1st
generation
2nd
generation
3rd+
1st
generation generation
Depressive Symptoms
2nd
generation
3rd+
generation
Suicidal Ideation
Source: Add Health Sample, 1993-94
The Latino Experience:
Substance Use
35%
30%
25%
20%
1st generation
2nd generation
3rd+ generation
15%
10%
5%
0%
Problematic
Alcohol Use
Repeated
Marijuana Use
Source: Hispanic Add Health Sample, 1993-94 (ages 12-18)
The Immigrant Experience:
Obesity
% Children ages 10-17
30%
25%
20%
27%
24%
22%
19%
18%
17%
15%
10%
15%
12%
11%
9%
5%
0%
15%
Hispanic 1st Generation
Hispanic 2nd Generation
Hispanic 3rd Generation
Black 1st Generation
Black 2nd Generation
Black 3rd Generation
White 1st generation
White 2nd Generation
White 3rd Generation
Asian 1st Generation
Asian 2nd Generation
Asian 3rd Generation
Obesity
Source: NSCH 2003, Singh (2009)
The Latino Experience:
Childhood Asthma
20
Prevalence Ages 3-17
Non-Hispanic White
Non-Hispanic Black
Hispanic-All
Hispanic-Puerto Rican
Asian
19.2
15.7
15
10
5
8.8
6.8
3.6
0
Currently Has Asthma
Source: NHIS 2008
The Latino Experience:
Access to Health Care
% Children under 18
20
17.2
Non-Hispanic White
Non-Hispanic Black
Hispanic
Mexican Background
Asian (data imprecise)
18.2
15
10
6.7
7.5
6.3
4.5
5
4.8
6.2 6
1.4
0
Uninsured for
Health Care
Delayed Care
Due to Cost
Source: NHIS 2008
The Immigrant Experience:
Access to Health Care
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Private Insurance
Coverage
Adult US Citizen
Child US Citizen
Medicaid/ Public
Insurance
NonCitizen (> 5 yrs)
NonCitizen (>= 5 yrs)
Uninsured
NonCitizen (<= 5 yrs)
NonCitizen (< 5 yrs)
Source: KFF 2009
Migration and
Acculturation Process
Stages
Threats and
Challenges
Pre-Migration
Migration
Post-Migration
- Poverty
- Physical Trauma
- Family Conflict
- Family Separation
- Emotional Trauma
- Discrimination
- Political Violence
- Accidental Injury
- Social Isolation
- Legal Marginalization
- N’hood. Disorganization
Policy
Strengths and
Resiliencies
Trade & Econ. Dev’p.
Policies
Immigration Policies
Immigrant Policies
- Coping Skills
- Future Orientation
- Adaptive Skills
- Remittances
- Good Health
- Ethnic Identification
- Family Support
- Family Involvem’t.
- Economic Gains
- Community Ties
- Rite of Passage
- Family Reunification
- Ethnic Enclaves
Pre-Migration Poverty and
Family Separation
Poverty
• “ [In Mexico], there isn’t much money and you have a limit on things.
Clothing is bought once a year; sometimes there’s nothing more to eat
than beans. Many people don’t have anything to eat and people [live] on
the streets.” {adolescent, LAMHA}
Family Separation
• “….When my husband would come visit us every 3 or 4 months, and he
would leave, [my daughters] would cry. They would tell him, ‘I will go
with you Daddy. I will go with you.’ And so when my family would make
comments that I could not come here, that I would never have a
complete home like my father’s other daughters, that is what drove me
to say, ‘I am going.’ And I decided to come.” {parent, LAMHA PILOT}
Migration Trauma
Trauma
• “ [I traveled] on a bus for two days sitting down and not
stopping except at every gas station to buy whatever and go
to the bathroom and from there arrive at the border and
this…waiting a night, and walking, many hours walking
through the desert. The water ran out, the food too and the
sun was so strong. Lots of people fainted, lots of people die
there and later you have to be hiding so the migra doesn’t
catch you and all that…and the animals-scorpions, cobrasand sleeping on the ground, with nothing, you get cold, you
get so hot, hungry, thirsty. {adolescent, LAMHA}
Post-Migration Acculturative
Stress
Social Isolation
• In Mexico, I knew all the families of my son’s friends. I knew the
mothers, the fathers, and even some of the grandparents. I had visited
their homes and they, ours. Here, it’s different. I don’t know the families
of his friends.” {Parent, LAMHA Pilot}
Perceived Discrimination and Racism
• In school I always had problems because the Americans called me
“wetback” and “beaner” “Mexican, go back to Mexico, we don’t want
you here.” And so, I answered back and I was the only one that got in
trouble, not the American. And I was always stuck in the intervention
center, In School Suspension, or detention. {Adolescent, LAMHA study)
Strength and Resilience
Family Reunification
• “I moved here ‘cause I wanted to see my parents [and] ‘cause it had
been a long time since I hadn’t seen them…. I had even forgot their
faces; I couldn’t even recognize them.” {adolescent, LAMHA}
Adaptive Skills
• “At first I didn’t want to go because of the change. Sometimes a
person is afraid because it’s another country, it’s another culture,
other people. And sometimes it’s as if you fear that. But really, it’s
like the saying goes, ‘No one becomes a prophet in their own land.’
So at times one has to search for other places and that’s what I’ve
found in this country, a great opportunity. {adolescent, LAMHA}
Strength and Resilience
Ethnic Identification and Selective Acculturation
• “It’s hard because the things that our parents taught us, they’re not the
same as what our teachers or the things that are outside [the family]
teach us right now. So, we have to kind of live with it; we have to change
but keep what our parents taught us in some way.” {adolescent, LAMHA}
Future Orientation
• “Even for an illegal [immigrant], I think if you put effort into learning the
language [and] doin’ good in school it’ll be way easier for to to be able to
find a job. And then, if there is an opportunity for you to get legalized you
will have the rest behind you. I’m not a legal immigrant. I don’t have a
visa. I don’t have nothin’ And in school I graduated taking AP calculus…I
took a college-level course… My GPA was like 3.97.” “If there’s ever a
change [in the law] for me to go to college, I’ll have that behind
me.”{adolescent, LAMHA}
Thank you