I was only 10 years old when my parents made the difficult decision to leave everything behind in Colombia to relocate our family to the United States in the hopes of a better life for my siblings and me. A life that ensured our safety, financial stability, and access to adequate education. Unfortunately, my parents plans for us were put on hold after my father was deported back to Colombia just one year after our arrival.
My mother tried her best to support our family of four, but without my father’s assistance, she was only able to do so for two months. She eventually made the difficult decision to send my brother and I back to Colombia. My parents also divorced. This traumatic event dismantled my family unit and is a narrative that far too many immigrant families face.
As a young girl, my father’s deportation was very traumatic for me and marks as a period of great loss in my life. The loss of my support system, my home as I knew it, my hope and identity, relationships, and my sense of self-worth exhibited in different forms throughout my childhood and young adulthood. I lost the creation of a healthy attachment with my parents, especially with my mother, who remained living in the United States during my teenage years. Through my father’s deportation and my parents’ subsequent divorce, I also experienced the loss of guidance, economic support, and the sense of a secure base and protection.
Despite the losses and struggles, I have truly worked towards healing all the wounds caused by this traumatic event. I have engaged in therapy to process my childhood trauma. I now have a successful career as a social worker at AFSC, and I have been able to apply social work theoretical frameworks that I have learned to better understand how my own trauma has impacted me as well as how it may impact other immigrant children who are also experiencing similar traumas and losses. I also find healing in supporting individuals and families who are facing deportation when I assist my clients to process feelings of uncertainty, anxiety, fear, shame, and pain related to deportation my family and I also experienced.
Trauma in immigrant youth and families
Many immigrant youth and families in the United States are exposed to trauma related to their immigration status. I have observed many traumatic experiences that immigrant youth and families face such as:
- Children having a parentified role that comes with being the family translator/interpreter
- Children taking on adult-like responsibilities to maintain a sense of safety for themselves and their siblings
- Individuals losing contact with multiple family members
- Individuals being removed from their communities, cultural foods, and routines that are familiar and controllable
- Individuals losing their cultural identity and first language
- Individuals having the requirement to live and communicate in a language that does not feel like home
- Individuals being pushed to assimilate to American culture as fast as possible
- Individuals feeling powerless over the immigration situation.
Additionally, the fear of deportation can also instill immense trauma within immigrants--particularly, if a family is separated due to deportation or even ICE detention.
How to address trauma with immigrant youth and families
As a social worker who primarily works with immigrants and their families who are in immigration proceedings, I can understand the common traumas, shared challenges, and barriers they face. Currently, many immigrants experience difficulties accessing mental health services including accessing services in a language that is familiar to them, long waitlists to access services, as well as transportation barriers. It is crucial to advertise existing programs and to create new programs aimed at supporting immigrant children who are already at risk for poor mental health status.
There is also a need to expand on therapy modalities offered by federally funded programs to address and treat mental health symptoms related to trauma such as Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy. EMDR is a culturally competent therapy modality that has the power to address and treat the effects of adversity and trauma, and culturally based trauma.
It is imperative that immigrants who have experienced loss and trauma have timely access to as many therapy modalities that are culturally competent and in a language that feels comfortable to them. This can prevent immigrants from being re-traumatized due to a lack of support from multiple systems.
The need for culturally competent services
As a social worker at AFSC, I have experienced firsthand how the lack of culturally appropriate and timely treatment, and a lack of variety in treatment, continues to affect immigrant children and families. Immigrant children and families continue to be re-traumatized by the lack of mental health resources that are culturally competent to the immigration experience. It would be beneficial for the federal government to create programs that offer trauma services in a culturally competent manner aimed towards helping immigrant communities heal from past trauma, and to develop the necessary skills for personal growth and overall wellness. My hope is to raise awareness of the issues many immigrants face when trying to access mental health support. I will continue to advocate for culturally competent treatment and services for this population and encourage others to do, as well.