U.S. Latino/a Parents' Responses to Recent Immigration Changes: A Mixed Methods Study

• In Event: 3-068 - The Pervasiveness of Stress and Adversity in the Lives of Today's U.S. Latino/a Adolescents

Integrative Statement

Since the inauguration of President Trump in 2017, a continuous stream of immigration policy changes has targeted the removal of Latino/as from the United States and resulted in unremitting media coverage of these deportations. Parental responses to immigration change can buffer or exacerbate the potential ill effects of changing environmental circumstances on young people (Pinquart & Silbereisen, 2004). Immigration-related changes in government likely have had a cascade of effects on work, school, and other community settings directly experienced by U.S. Latino/a parents. There exists little empirical evidence for impacts of today’s unprecedented immigration changes on U.S. Latino/a families (as exceptions, see Roche et al., 2018 and Wray-Lake et al., 2018). Using a mixed-methods research design, the present study addresses two questions: (1) How do U.S. Latino parents raising adolescents report that their lives have been affected by recent immigration actions and news? (2) In what ways are immigration impacts uniquely experienced for parents of differing residency statuses?

Methods. Using a concurrent triangulation study design, we conducted surveys with 213 U.S. Latino/a parents with youth aged 12 to 18 and six focus groups with n = 54 of these parents. Residency status groups include undocumented (32%), permanent resident (33%), Temporary Protected Status (TPS; 17%), and U.S. citizen (17%). For focus group data, we used thematic analysis, a six-step method for identifying, analyzing, and detailing themes in narrative data (Braun and Clarke 2006). Using open coding, the team hand-coded the text for salient themes in focus group discussions, compared responses for each coder, and met to reach a consensus on coding. We mapped focus group themes onto survey responses to the 15 immigration impact items to validate qualitative findings.

Results. Focus group data revealed three primary themes for responses to immigration actions and news. Theme 1: Worries and Concerns were most salient for undocumented and TPS parents and centered on job loss and worry about youth’s futures. Permanent resident parents expressed uncertainty about how secure their futures will be in the face of immigration policy changes. For U.S. citizens, worries mostly focused on concern for their non-citizen counterparts. Theme 2: Behavioral Changes entailed non-citizen parents’ modifying travel plans to avoid authorities, undocumented parents hiding at home, and all parents trying to allay their adolescents’ fears. Theme 3: Daily Life Adversities were most directly experienced by undocumented parents. For all parents, however, a most salient daily life adversity was being discriminated against, often in the name of President Trump.
Survey results (Table 1) largely mirrored focus group narratives. TPS and undocumented parents reported significantly higher scores for adverse responses to immigration changes than did permanent resident and, especially, U.S. citizen parents.

Discussion. Although adverse immigration impacts were most salient for non-citizen parents, U.S. citizens reported considerable worry about more vulnerable Latino community members. Regardless of residency status, U.S. Latino parents appear to have experienced blatant forms of discrimination and racial profiling tied to recent immigration changes. Our discussion will highlight the unique insights gained by qualitative and quantitative approaches to this topic.

Authors

• Kathleen Roche, The George Washington University
  Presenting Author

• Elizabeth Vaquera, The George Washington University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Claudia A Delbasso, Georgia State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Gabriel Kuperminc, Georgia State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Marisa Cordon, The George Washington University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Maria Ivonne Rivera, Rivera Group, Inc.
  Non-Presenting Author