Immigration Article of the Day: Joanna Dreby, “The Burden of Deportation for Children in Mexican Immigrant Families”

Joanna Dreby, “The Burden of Deportation for Children in Mexican Immigrant Families,” Journal of Marriage and Family.  See the news release about the article.  Download JMFdeportationpyramidl

 Drawing on interviews with parents and children in 80 Mexican households, including parents’ stories about the impact deportations have had on their families as well as the often overlooked accounts from children, Dreby documented how an emphasis on enforcement that targets Mexicans at the level of public policy has had disturbing consequences for young children who have Mexican immigrant parents, many of whom are U.S. citizens.  The ethnographic study completed between 2009 and 2012 included interviews with 91 parents and 110 children, ages 5-15, in northeast Ohio, where the Mexican community is relatively small and dispersed, as well as in central New Jersey, where the Mexican community is concentrated. Dreby also did home and school visits with a smaller group of 12 children in the 1st-3rd grades. A common fear parents expressed in interviews is that they could lose custody of U.S. born children if detained or deported. A recent study found cause for parents’ concerns; in 2011 more than 5,100 U.S. children were living in foster care after a parent’s detention or deportation. However, Dreby cautioned, although these extreme cases exist, focusing on these outcomes obscures the more insidious ways deportation policies impact a greater number of children.

Dreby suggests that, similar to the injury pyramid used by public health professionals, a deportation pyramid best depicts the burden of deportation on children. At the top of the pyramid are instances that have had the most severe consequences on children’s daily lives: families in which a deportation has led to permanent family dissolution. Next is the harsh consequence that many U.S.-born children — citizens of the U.S. — are unable to live in the country. But enforcement policies have had the greatest impact on children at the bottom of the pyramid: regardless of true legal status or their family members’ involvement with immigration authorities, children in Mexican immigrant households describe fear about their family stability, association of immigration with illegality, and a predisposition to denying their immigrant heritage.

KJ