Young Immigrants’ Integration into a New Home: The Case of Central American Children and Youth Settling in Washington, DC
Children and Youths' Migration in a Global Landscape
ISBN: 978-1-80117-539-5, eISBN: 978-1-80117-538-8
Publication date: 24 May 2022
Abstract
Purpose: To describe some of the tensions that both unaccompanied and accompanied immigrant children and youth face when reuniting with family members living abroad after years of living apart, separated by borders and anti-immigrant policies are described.
Methods: Fifty-eight interviews with immigrant minors from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala and the tensions they reported having after moving in with their biological parents or legal sponsors in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area are drawn upon.
Findings: Youth reported that getting used to cohabitation and in-person relationships with their parents or other sponsor was difficult at first, though it improved over time. Despite the biological, emotional, and financial bonds, minors had to learn how to relate to new authority figures and follow their rules. Many reported feeling lonely and missing grandmothers and other family members and friends left behind in the country of birth.
Research implications: Interviews with counselors and local authorities that interface with these families show that parenting and youth programs in the places of settlement can become effective interventions to improve relations between children and parents recently reunited, which can indeed help with scholastic achievement and socio-economic advancement.
Value: The interview extracts bring a window into intrafamily dynamics, often overlooked in discussions of the integration of immigrant children and youth into their new homes and communities.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgments
The data presented originate from the project “Household Contexts and School Integration of Resettled Youth” funded by the Office of the Provost and administered by the Center for Latin American and Latino Studies at American University. Eric Hershberg and Noemi Enchautegui de Jesus, co-PIs, helped design the study. The authors thank Dennis Stinchcomb for administering the project. Cynthia Cristobal, Noemi Enchautegui de Jesus, Aida Romero, Catie Prechtel, Natali Collazos, Maria de Luna, and Ines Luengo de Krom conducted the interviews. The authors also thank Cristian Mendoza Gomez, and the research assistants who helped transcribe, translate, enter, and code the interviews and create alias’ tables. The authors thank Karissa Stanio, Claire Whitman, and Madelyn Hagins for help editing and Sandra Castro for her feedback on the substance. The authors thank Giovanna Calderon for her help discussing policy and legal processes. The authors appreciate the engagement of the members of the Immigration Lab. The authors thank Eric Hershberg of the Center for Latin American and Latino Studies and Kim Blankenship, Deanna L. Kerrigan, and Wendy Davis of the Center on Health, Risk, and Society for their support through research assistance funding. The authors especially thank the editors of this volume and peer reviewers for the helpful queries, feedback, and support. Any errors remain the authors’ responsibility.
Citation
Castañeda, E., Jenks, D. and Cristobal, C. (2022), "Young Immigrants’ Integration into a New Home: The Case of Central American Children and Youth Settling in Washington, DC", Atterberry, A.L., McCallum, D.G., Tu, S., Lutz, A. and Bass, L.E. (Ed.) Children and Youths' Migration in a Global Landscape (Sociological Studies of Children and Youth, Vol. 29), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 33-50. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1537-466120220000029003
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2022 Ernesto Castañeda, Daniel Jenks and Cynthia Cristobal