85% of Immigrant Children Experience Separations During Migration

New Findings of the Harvard Immigration Project

New findings from an ongoing longitudinal study of over 400 immigrant children suggest that a high proportion (85%) of these children experience a separation from one or both parents during the migratory process. Carola Suárez-Orozco, Irina Todorova, and Josephine Louie, researchers from the Harvard Immigration Project at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, also found that 35% of immigrant children experienced separation from their fathers for more than five years. The quantitative and qualitative findings appear in "The Transnationalization of Families: Immigrant Separations and Reunifications," the plenary session paper delivered at the American Family Therapy Academy on Friday, June 29 in Miami. The findings also showed that children who arrived to the United States as a family unit involving no separations from their parents were less likely to report depressive symptoms than children whose families had separated during the migratory process.

"These proportions of separation are significantly higher than we had anticipated either from previous research or anecdotal evidence," says Carola Suárez-Orozco, co-director with Marcelo Suárez-Orozco of the Harvard Immigration Project. "Given that 20% of children in the United States are growing up in immigrant homes, we now know that substantial numbers of children are being affected by the separation phenomenon."

Data were derived from the Longitudinal Immigrant Student Adaptation Study (L.I.S.A.), an interdisciplinary and comparative study designed by the Harvard Immigration Project to document educational attitudes, academic engagement, and outcomes among recently arrived immigrant youth. This five-year project- currently in its fourth year- began by following 407 recently arrived immigrant youth from Central America (including El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua), China (Hong Kong, Mainland China, and Taiwan), the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Mexico. Youth were between the ages of nine and 14 at the beginning of the study. The participants, sorted by gender and country of origin, were recruited from seven school districts in the Boston and San Francisco greater metropolitan areas.

FINDINGS INCLUDE:
Prevalence and Patterns of Separation

* 85% of the youth respondents in the study sample were separated from one or both parents during the process of migration. Significant differences between the ethnic groups exist. Children from the Chinese group tended to migrate with both parents most frequently (37%), while the circumstances of migration for the Haitian and Central American groups imposed a family disruption during migration in nearly all cases (96% in both cases).

* Nearly half (49%) of youth respondents in the sample were separated from both parents sometime during migration. Separation from both parents was most likely to occur among the Central American (80%), Dominican (61%), and Haitian (59%) families.

* 79% of respondents in the sample had experienced a separation from their fathers during migration. 86% of Haitian and 96% of Central American children experienced such a separation. The Chinese children (48%) were least likely to experience separation from their fathers.

* 55% of immigrant children respondents in the sample were separated from their mothers sometime during the course of migration. The Chinese children were least likely to be separated from their mothers (23%) while the majority of Central American (80%), Dominican (64%), and Haitian (69%) children lived apart from their mothers for a time. Mexican children fell within the middle range (42%).

* 28% of the children have been separated from their siblings as a direct result of migration. Separation from siblings occurs most often for the Dominican group and the Central American group.

Length of Separation

* Researchers found some striking differences among groups in length of time for which the children had been separated from their mothers. Of the Mexican children who separated from their mothers, 73% were separated for under 2 years. Of the Chinese children who separated from their mothers during migration, over half were separated to between two to five years (12%). For the Central American children, almost half (47%) experienced a separation from their mothers of 5 years or more.

* 35% of all children were separated from fathers for five or more children. When separation from the father occurs during migration, it is usually a very lengthy or permanent one. Of the children who were separated from their fathers, half had been separated for five years or more. These lengthy separations were particularly prevalent among Haitians (71%), Dominicans (60%), and Central Americans (54%). About a third of Mexican respondents (34%) and over half of Chinese respondents (56%) who reported separations from their fathers were separated for less than two years.

Effects of Separation

* Researchers found preliminary evidence that children who arrived to the U.S. as a family unit with no separations from their parents were less likely to report depressive symptoms than children who had experienced a parental separation during the migratory process.

* Children who left both parents behind in their country of origin to join other family members or who came to the U.S. with a parent leaving the other behind in country of origin reported higher levels of depressive symptoms.

Recommendations
Children often experience migratory separations as painful and complications in family relationships and dynamics often occur. The researchers stress, however, that the effects of the separation may be minimized if the child is cared for in the parent's absence in a supportive environment, if the parents and caretakers cooperate and are in regular communication, and if the child can make meaning of the situation.

"We know from previous research that if the child is well-prepared for the separation, and if the separation is framed as temporary and necessary and undergone for the good of the family, the separation will be much more manageable than if the child feels abandoned," says Carola Suárez-Orozco.

"Additionally, our qualitative data suggest that separations followed by reunification, after an initial period of disorientation, may lead to an increased sense of closeness and intimacy in some families. Many of our participants viewed the relationship between parents and children as having increased in intensity because of the need to 'make up for lost time' to fill each other in on all that has been missed."

More information about the Harvard Immigration Project and the Longitudinal Immigrant Student Adaptation Study can be found on the Harvard Immigration Project's website.

For More Information

Contact Carola Suárez-Orozco at 617-495-7883, Marcelo Suárez-Orozco at 617-495-4864, or Christine Sanni at 617-496-5873 or christine_sanni@harvard.edu.