Urban Education on Engaging Communities and Supporting Praxis with Immigrant and Refugee Families

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the U.S. government's recent harsh restrictions on immigrants and refugees and the ramped-up anti-immigrant sentiments. The strict borderlands politics, the militarized police at the border zones, family separations and other tactics of fear, silencing, and oppression reinforced within public spheres and institutions (e.g., racialized policies of control, the constant threat of deportation) have greatly impacted the lives of immigrant and refugee families and children ( Gándara & Ee, 2018 ; Zayas et al., 2015 ). Providing sociopolitical, educational, and emotional support for immigrant/refugee students and their families has never become so urgent during this extraordinary time.