Immigration Trauma Research Articles

Culturally responsive evaluation with Latinx communities through culturally specific assessment: Building the Latinx immigration trauma assessment

AbstractThis article emphasizes that assessments misaligned with the populations of study have the potential for measurement disjuncture, invalidation of data meaning, and, ultimately, the invalidation of evaluation findings. The authors conducted a study to identify and describe the development of a culturally specific assessment (CSA) model and how it was used in the development of a Latinx Immigration Trauma assessment framework to reflect the unique experiences of Latinx immigrants. The authors outline the use of the Disjuncture‐response Dialectic as the theoretical grounding and utilize a Critical comparative case study design. The resultant multidimensional Latinx Immigration Trauma Assessment framework consists of the dimensions of nervios, desaliento, desesperanza, duelo, y pena. The development process may encourage evaluators to seek deeper understanding of their methodological choices when examining the efficacy of trauma interventions for Latinx immigrants.

Psychoterapeutic Work with The Trauma Of Immigration in Transactional Analysis Approach

This article contains the author’s reflections on how looking at emigration through the lens of traumatic experience can help expand the understanding of a client’s life script and support the client in overcoming difficulties in adaptation in a new country. The meaning of «trauma» allows us to draw an analogy between the emigration experience and those possible changes in the life script that the emigration provokes. The emigration experience can greatly contribute to regression to the Child ego state, which can also interfere with the adaptation of the client. The article considers the possible causes of regression and how this may affect the design of new decisions in the present and future. The article offers the practical experience of working with emigrants, which reflects the tendency to strengthen the driver ”Be strong”, and also explains the reasons for such behavior among respondents, participants of the experiment. The author suggests using the existential position ”I’m OK — You’re OK” as a formula for overcoming cultural difficulties of adaptation and as a lens for perceiving the difference of cultures during the process of mastering a new system of norms and rules. Awareness of the practical experience acquired through emigration can help a person overcome difficulties in adapting to a new country. The article was prepared on the basis of a speech at the MIR-TA (International Institute of Developing TA) Conference in 2023.

Tibetans in Taiwan: Struggles with Immigrant Trauma and Social Work Intervention

Tibetans in Taiwan: Struggles with Immigrant Trauma and Social Work Intervention

Is This My Home? How Psychoanalytic Training Led to My Cultural Reawakening

ABSTRACT In this paper, I reflect on how cultural selfobject experiences shape one’s sense of identity and how contemporary psychoanalysis has evolved in order to recognize the impact of extra psychic factors on emotional development. I use my personal experience as a Jewish, first-generation daughter of immigrants to focus on culture, fantasied whiteness, intergenerational transmission of the trauma of immigration, and the role of dissociation in formation of identity. I also elaborate on how an expanded psychoanalytic theory and practice that includes the socio-cultural as part of the relational field has helped me to understand how these experiences become internalized.

A Social Ecological Approach to Latino Immigrant Trauma and Intervention: An Integrative Review.

This paper presents an application that can be taken when conducting mental health intervention within the Latino immigrant population. Using a social ecological lens, it provides an overview of experiences and factors to detail the characteristics, trauma, and resilience factors present within this population. Utilizing Ungar's framework on resilience, that decenters the individual from experiences of trauma to position them alongside their social network and resources, it proposes an application for future intervention and research efforts. Addressing intervention at a foundational level allows for the supplementing and shaping of current methods to address the mental health needs of this community.

Undocumented Aging Immigrants and Impact on Mental Health Care

The near elderly and elderly population in the United States has slowly increased and a significant number now constitute of undocumented immigrants who also have one or more chronic health conditions. Diabetes, hypertension, and cancer are most common however it is well known that undocumented immigrants often have a high incidence of mental health disorders that may be undiagnosed given limited access to care. The elderly are even more vulnerable to lack of access of care and given the cross section of poor mental and physical care suffer from consequences of otherwise preventable chronic health conditions.This presentation will explore the following:1. Define the terms “immigrant”, “documented”, “undocumented”, first generation, second generation.2. Will discuss trauma of immigration and impact on mental health specifically in the elderly3.Will review literature available on mental and cognitive health care of undocumented elderly immigrants4. Will identify resources that may be helpful for geriatric psychiatrists and other associated providers including screening materials

(Re)Configuring Language Identity and Memory in Eva Hoffman’s "Lost In Translation" / (Re)konfiguracija jezičkog identiteta i sećanja u romanu "Izgubljeno u prevodu" Eve Hofman

The paper aims to examine Eva Hoffman’s experience of language and subsequent testimony of the trauma of immigration in her autobiographical novel Lost in Translation. As the daughter of Holocaust survivors, Eva Hoffman bears the burden of inherited memories of her parents’ Holocaust experiences, belonging to what Marianne Hirsch defines as the generation of postmemory. This status significantly impacts her sense of self and creates obstacles in the process of assimilation into a new country. Hoffman faces double immigration to Canada and the United States, where she struggles with her acquisition of the English language and finding an adequate narrative voice to testify to her family’s trauma and her own trauma of losing her Polish language and identity. To overcome the trauma of an unfamiliar space and language she initially feels disconnected from, Hoffman narrates her life and experiences in a new world. By examining the process of acceptance of a new language, readers witness Hoffman’s healing process and attempt to find closure in a world of fragmented, disassociated language and memories.

Three Mothers (2006) by Dina Zvi-Riklis: The Repressed Israeli Trauma of Immigration

This article relates to the complex approach of Dina Zvi-Riklis’ film Three Mothers (2006) to immigration, an issue that is central to both the Jewish religion and Israeli identity. While for both, reaching the land of Israel means arriving in the promised land, they are quite dissimilar, in that one is a religious command, while the other is an ideological imperative. Both instruct the individual to opt for the obliteration of his past. However, this system does not apply to the protagonists of Three Mothers, a film which follows the extraordinary trajectory of triplet sisters, born to a rich Jewish family in Alexandria, who are forced to leave Egypt after King Farouk’s abdication and immigrate to Israel. This article will demonstrate that Three Mothers represents an outstanding achievement, because it dares to deal with its protagonists’ longing for the world left behind and the complexity of integrating the past into the present. Following Nicholas Bourriaud’s radicant theory, designating an organism that grows roots and adds new ones as it advances, this article will argue that, although the protagonists of Three Mothers never avow their longing for Egypt, the film’s narrative succeeds in revealing a subversive démarche, through which the sisters succeed in integrating Egypt into their present.

Child Immigration from Both Sides of the Border: Implications for Trauma-Informed Practices in the Schools

Many children as young as 7 years old journey across Central America to the USA, facing danger and uncertainty that influence their later physical and emotional development and socialization. This paper synthesizes the literature on the experiences of unaccompanied immigrant children from Latin America traveling to the USA, how the trauma of immigration can manifest in their development, and offers evidence-informed strategies that mental health service providers in the schools can implement. Results show that the initial negative events that promote immigration along with traumatic experiences during their migration journey suggest that child immigrants may be at a higher risk to experience acculturation-based problems, discrimination-based problems, and trauma-based difficulties. School psychologists are at the frontline of this crisis and need adequate resources and tools to respond to the needs of a segment of the school population that is increasingly at risk for serious mental health and poor socio-emotional outcomes. More research in this area is needed, especially as it applies to a school setting. Implications for interventions are discussed.

Más Allá De Las Barreras: Competency and Practice Considerations in Language, Cultural, and Social Issues When Delivering Group CPT to Hispanic Immigrants

ABSTRACTHigh rates of underassessed trauma and psychiatric disorders, particularly post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have been reported among Hispanic immigrants, especially as related to immigration trauma. Multiple studies have shown group cognitive processing therapy (CPT) to be an effective evidence-based practice (EBP) for treatment of PTSD across a number of clinical populations. To date, however, no studies have examined important competency and practice issues in linguistic, cultural, and ethical areas that group CPT providers should consider when delivering group CPT to Hispanic immigrants. This article aims to outline these and provide future directions for research.

Adverse Childhood Experiences and Outcomes among At-Risk Spanish-Speaking Latino Families

This study examined the relationship between ACE score and substance use, mental health, and parenting competence among a sample of Latino caregivers at-risk for child maltreatment. This study sought to increase our understanding of ACEs and outcomes among Latino caregivers that had at least two risk factors for child maltreatment. Surveys were administered to caregivers with children between 0 and 5 years of age who enrolled in child maltreatment prevention programs and completed by N= 417 Spanish-speaking Latino caregivers before or shortly after beginning the prevention program. Results suggest that ACE scores are positively associated with mental health issues and substance use, but the relationship between ACE scores and parenting competence is more complex. Furthermore, foreign-born caregivers fared better in terms of mental health and parenting competence than their U.S.-born counterparts among this sample of Spanish-speaking at-risk Latino caregivers. Implications for future research include incorporating other measures of more current exposure to adversity, such as immigration trauma, when working with recent immigrants. Furthermore, practitioners should be aware of policies related to immigration and how these might impact potential service usage and overall wellbeing among Spanish-speaking clients. More research is needed to better understand other factors that might impact parenting, mental health, and substance use associated with ACEs among Latino families.

Immigration Trauma among Hispanic Youth: Missed by Trauma Assessments and Predictive of Depression and PTSD Symptoms.

Few quantitative studies have examined the rate of exposure to traumatic events during immigration among Hispanics or its relation to mental health outcomes. Failing to capture traumatic events that occur during immigration may impede investigations of trauma and related mental health disparities with Hispanics. In order to better understand the need for immigration-related trauma assessment, interviews were conducted with 131 immigrant Hispanic youth. First, youth completed a comprehensive trauma assessment interview. Items were added to the interview to assess if each traumatic event occurred during the process of immigration. An immigration-focused module was then added to the end of the assessment. A substantial minority of youths reported experiencing a traumatic event during immigration (n = 39; 29.8%). The majority of these were not captured by the standard trauma assessment (n = 32; 82.1% of those with in-transit trauma). Of these, the majority stated that the process of immigration itself was traumatic, but had not indicated experiencing any event assessed during the standard trauma assessment (n = 28; 87.5% of those with unidentified in-transit trauma). The traumatic events that were not captured during the standard trauma assessment significantly predicted both depression (p < .001) and PTSD symptoms (p = .012). Results suggest that standard trauma assessments may not capture traumatic events that occur during immigration for Hispanic youth. Failing to capture these events during trauma assessment may have large implications for research on trauma-related mental health disparities, as the events that were not captured overlapped significantly with depression and PTSD.

Immigrant Trauma and Mental Health Outcomes Among Latino Youth.

While research has demonstrated an association between trauma and mental health, this study examined the association between trauma experienced premigration, during migration, and postmigration, and current mental health status among Latino youth aged 12-17years old living in the US for < 3years. Participants reported traumatic events experienced in their home country, during migration, and after settling in the US. Regression models examined trauma experienced at each stage of the migration process predicting current levels of depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Two-thirds of youth experienced at least one traumatic event, 44% experienced an event once, and 23% experienced two or more traumatic events during migration. Trauma experienced at different migration stages was associated with distinctive mental health outcomes. It is essential that access to culturally sensitive assessment and treatment services be available to ensure transition to a healthy adulthood.

Readiness to Use Psychoactive Substances Among Second-Generation Adolescent Immigrants and Perceptions of Parental Immigration-Related Trauma

ABSTRACTObjectives: This research explores the relationship between parental immigration-related trauma and second-generation adolescent substance abuse. To examine this relationship, we focused on Ethiopian adolescents in Israel who are at risk for substance abuse. Many immigrants from Ethiopia experienced severe immigration trauma and research indicates the existence of transgenerational trauma transmission. The current research focuses on the connection between Ethiopian adolescents' perceptions of their parents' immigration trauma and their readiness to use psychoactive substances. Design: Five hundred and ten second-generation Ethiopian adolescents (Israeli-born children of Ethiopian immigrants) filled out questionnaires examining socio-demographic characteristics, immigration impact and readiness to consume alcoholic beverages and use illegal drugs. Results: Our findings show that readiness levels among Ethiopian adolescents to use psychoactive substances are relatively low, and that parental trauma only affects the readiness to consume alcohol. The levels of readiness to consume drugs were partially related to parental trauma. Conclusions/Importance: Transgenerational trauma transmission should be considered when implementing alcohol and substance abuse treatment and prevention policies among second generation immigrants. This should be done on all levels including personal, interpersonal and community levels.

Brief Report: Comparing the Autobiographical Remembering of Iranian Immigrant Trauma Survivors with That of Iranian and British Trauma Survivors

SummaryThis study investigated how culture and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) influence the autobiographical remembering of Iranian trauma survivors living in Britain compared to the remembering of British trauma survivors living in their host culture (Britain) and Iranians in their culture of origin (Iran). Iranian immigrants with and without PTSD completed measures of autobiographical remembering. Data was compared to previously collected data from British and Iranian trauma survivors with and without PTSD. It was found that the memory‐content of Iranian immigrants' memories resembled that of Iranian trauma survivors in Iran, while the phenomenological properties of their autobiographical remembering more closely resembled that of British trauma survivors. Moreover, there were pan‐cultural distortions and deficits in the autobiographical remembering of those with PTSD. The findings suggest that immigrants with PTSD have similar disruptions and distortions in their autobiographical remembering as that of individuals with PTSD living in their host culture and culture of origin.Copyright © 2016 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.

The Uninsured, the Homeless, and the Undocumented Immigrant Trauma Patient. Revealing Health-Care Disparity at a Level 1 Trauma Center

The Uninsured, the Homeless, and the Undocumented Immigrant Trauma Patient. Revealing Health-Care Disparity at a Level 1 Trauma Center

The politics of ethnic melancholy in Israeli cinema

This paper deals with the way migrants’ children process the trans-generational trauma of immigration and examines its impact on the formation of their self-identity. It explores the manifestation of this trauma as present in two highly-notable works by Mizrahi cinematographers. The memory unfolding in these films is a penetrating audio-visual testimony to the immigration trauma with the mark it has left on the psyches and identities of migrants’ children. It argues that the split identity that is a product of both Israeli assimilationist and Mizrahi resistance inhabits the continuum between mourning and melancholy, grief and grievance. Along this continuum, immigrant subjects engage in intergenerational negotiations between mourning and melancholy, while their ethnic melancholy emerges as an alternative mental state to the Eurocentric hegemony.

Taking a history with newcomer children and adolescents.

Cultural and language barriers are a major cause of disparities in health care access and health outcomes for immigrant and refugee children and adolescents. To practice culturally effective health care and promote health equity, health care providers need to be aware of their own cultural backgrounds and biases, and sensitive to differences between their own backgrounds and their patients’ backgrounds. For newcomer children, adolescents and families, health care providers need to understand immigration history, possible immigration trauma, identity development, acculturation, family conflicts, sociocultural dimensions of health beliefs, experiences with bias or racism, and adolescent risk behaviours and protective factors. All of these issues are influenced by culture, and can profoundly affect health status as well as health care-seeking behaviours and relationships with health care providers. What follows are sample questions that can be gathered in the health and psychosocial history of newcomer children and adolescents. These sample questions are not meant to be exhaustive, nor are they meant to be used as a ‘checklist’ to be asked in a certain order, similar to a structured interview. Rather, these questions illustrate approaches that providers can use to begin exploring issues that significantly affect the health of newcomer children and adolescents (1–6). These questions can be asked of the child and/or parent as appropriate. The issues can be explored directly with the older child or adolescent in a developmentally appropriate manner, including as part of the confidential adolescent psychosocial interview. Cultural competence and culturally effective health care is an important investment in promoting health equity and health, reducing disparities for newcomer children and youth. Please visit the Canadian Paediatric Society’s Caring for Kids New to Canada website (www.kidsnewtocanada.ca) for more information and resources on serving this population.

Who will cover the cost of undocumented immigrant trauma care?

Health care reform under the "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act" (PPACA) will lead to changes in reimbursement. Although this legislation provides a mechanism for uninsured Americans to obtain coverage, it excludes undocumented immigrants (UDI). Reimbursement for UDIs comes from the disproportionate share hospital (DSH) program and was previously supported by Section-1011 of the 2003 Medicare Modernization Act (S1011). The PPACA details a cut of DSH funds starting in 2014. This could impose a significant financial burden on trauma centers. From May 2005 to May 2008, we retrospectively reviewed all trauma-related emergency room visits by UDIs. We quantified charges for three entities: emergency department physicians, trauma surgeons, and the hospital. We applied our average institutional collection rate to these charges and compared these projected collections with the actual collections. Over a three-year period, we identified 1,325 trauma UDIs. The financial records revealed a projected emergency department physicians collection of $452,686, a projected trauma surgeons collection of $1.2 million, and a projected hospital collection of $6.9 million (total $8.6 million). Actual funding from S1011 provided $1.7 million and DSH provided $1.9 million (total $3.6 million). Texas State Funding and UDI self-payment contributed $611,082. Overall, our institution had a reimbursement discrepancy of $4.3 million with DSH/S1011 assistance. This increased to $6.0 million after the termination of S1011 and may increase to $7.9 million under PPACA. These figures underestimate the total cost of UDI trauma care as it only includes three entities. Our data represent a fraction of national figures. Failure to address these issues could result in ongoing financial problems for trauma centers. II, economic and decision analysis.

Immigration Trauma, Substance Abuse, and Suicide

Bianca is a 35-year-old, divorced Brazilian woman with a history of depression, anxiety, trauma, and substance abuse who has made several serious suicide attempts. Before three years ago, Bianca ha...