Immigrant Children and Child Welfare in the United States: Demographics, Legislation, Research, Policy, and Practice Impacting Public Services

Abstract

This article summarizes the presentation given at the 2nd International Conference of the International Society for Child Indicators (ISCI) in November 2009, in Sydney, Australia. The intent of the paper is to build a framework of strategic advancement of child wellbeing of a subgroup of vulnerable children, utilizing national indicators from the variety of disciplines mentioned in the title. The paper discusses indicators that have been used to advance the knowledge development, research, policy, advocacy, and practice accomplishments of the Migration and Child Welfare National Network. This national initiative, under the leadership of the American Humane Association, represents a collaborative effort of more than a dozen national organizations, universities, state child welfare agencies, immigrant serving agencies, and child welfare and other professionals across the United States and other nations including Mexico and other Latin American countries whose children are impacted by the issues mentioned in this paper.