NCIIP: Health

Policy Briefs

April 2024

Supporting Immigrant and Refugee Families through Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Services

Young girl talks to a child psychologist

iStock.com/Lacheev

Infant and early childhood mental health (IECMH) services can offer vital support for young children’s healthy development. Yet, young children in immigrant and refugee families often do not benefit, due in part to lower levels of health-care coverage and limited cultural responsiveness in the field. This issue brief explores the benefits and barriers to supporting these children via IECMH services, and some ways to close key gaps.

Reports

January 2024

Immigrants’ Eligibility for U.S. Public Benefits: A Primer

A young nurse hugs an elderly patient in a wheelchair

iStock.com/PeopleImages

Immigrants’ eligibility for public benefits in the United States is governed by a complex patchwork of rules that make many groups of noncitizens eligible for some benefits but not others, while other noncitizens are excluded completely. This report provides an overview of immigrants’ eligibility for programs related to general assistance, health and nutrition, employment and income, education, housing, driver’s licenses, and more.

Reports

April 2023

A Path to Meeting the Medical and Mental Health Needs of Unaccompanied Children in U.S. Communities

Latina teenager in medical office with clinician

iStock.com/FatCamera

As the number of unaccompanied children entering U.S. communities has increased, many have faced barriers to accessing critical medical and mental health services. This report explores common barriers to care, promising practices for overcoming them, and strategies for strengthening services. It draws on interviews and focus groups with clinicians, social workers, and others working with this population as well as one-time unaccompanied children themselves.

Commentaries

March 2022

Opportunities Exist to Better Reach Dual Language Learner and Immigrant Families through Home Visiting Programs

A woman feeds a young child sitting on a white plastic chair

Bread for the World

Home visiting programs can offer critical integration-related supports, yet many Dual Language Learner (DLL) and immigrant families are known to be underserved. With reauthorization of the Maternal, Infant, and Early Child Home Visiting (MIECHV) program looming, Congress has an important opportunity to support families with young children—many of whom are still struggling with challenges exposed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Commentaries

December 2020

Anticipated “Chilling Effects” of the Public-Charge Rule Are Real: Census Data Reflect Steep Decline in Benefits Use by Immigrant Families

iStock

Researchers, service providers, and others have long predicted that sweeping revisions by the Trump administration to the definition of who constitutes a public charge would deter large numbers of immigrant-led households from using federal means-tested public benefits for which they are eligible. Recently released Census Bureau data show they were right: During the administration's first three years, program participation declined twice as fast among noncitizens as citizens.

Commentaries

December 2020

The Role of Immigrant Health-Care Professionals in the United States during the Pandemic

Todd Jordan/Centers for Disease Control

With the U.S. health-care system buckling under the resurgent COVID-19 outbreak, policymakers could undertake efforts to enable skilled, underemployed international health-care professionals to practice. This would both make the health system more resilient and flexible, as well as introduce critical language and cultural skills important during the contact-tracing and vaccine rollout phases of the pandemic response, as this commentary explores.

Recent Activity

Fact Sheets May 2020 Barriers to COVID-19 Testing and Treatment: Immigrants without Health Coverage in the United States By Randy Capps and Julia Gelatt	Commentaries April 2020 As U.S. Health-Care System Buckles under Pandemic, Immigrant & Refugee Professionals Could Represent a Critical Resource By Jeanne Batalova and Michael Fix
Multimedia March 5, 2020 Green Cards and Public Charge: Who Could Be Denied Based on Benefits Use?	Commentaries March 2020 The Public-Charge Rule: Broad Impacts, But Few Will Be Denied Green Cards Based on Actual Benefits Use By Randy Capps, Julia Gelatt and Mark Greenberg
Policy Briefs November 2019 Health Insurance Coverage of Immigrants and Latinos in the Kansas City Metro Area By Randy Capps and Ariel G. Ruiz Soto	Commentaries October 2019 Health Insurance Test for Green-Card Applicants Could Sharply Cut Future U.S. Legal Immigration By Julia Gelatt and Mark Greenberg
Policy Briefs August 2019 Leveraging the Potential of Home Visiting Programs to Serve Immigrant and Dual Language Learner Families By Maki Park and Caitlin Katsiaficas	Commentaries August 2019 Millions Will Feel Chilling Effects of U.S. Public-Charge Rule That Is Also Likely to Reshape Legal Immigration By Jeanne Batalova, Michael Fix and Mark Greenberg

Pages

Reports October 2015 The Educational and Mental Health Needs of Syrian Refugee Children By Selcuk R. Sirin and Lauren Rogers-Sirin	Reports September 2015 Implications of Immigration Enforcement Activities for the Well-Being of Children in Immigrant Families: A Review of the Literature By Randy Capps, Heather Koball, Andrea Campetella, Krista Perreira, Sarah Hooker and Juan Manuel Pedroza
Reports September 2015 Health and Social Service Needs of U.S.-Citizen Children with Detained or Deported Immigrant Parents By Heather Koball, Randy Capps, Sarah Hooker, Krista Perreira, Andrea Campetella, Juan Manuel Pedroza, William Monson and Sandra Huerta	Reports September 2015 Economic, Social, and Health Effects of Discrimination on Latino Immigrant Families By Cecilia Ayón
Reports September 2015 The Educational, Psychological, and Social Impact of Discrimination on the Immigrant Child By Christia Spears Brown	Reports July 2013 Is the United States Bad for Children’s Health? Risk and Resilience among Young Children of Immigrants By Jennifer Van Hook, Nancy Landale and Marianne Hillemeier
Reports June 2013 Health Care for Immigrant Families: Current Policies and Issues By Leighton Ku and Mariellen Jewers	Policy Briefs May 2013 A Demographic, Socioeconomic, and Health Coverage Profile of Unauthorized Immigrants in the United States By Randy Capps, Michael Fix, Jennifer Van Hook and James D. Bachmeier

Recent Activity

Fact Sheets

May 2020

Barriers to COVID-19 Testing and Treatment: Immigrants without Health Coverage in the United States

As millions of U.S. workers lose jobs and the health insurance associated with them, Medicaid and similar programs are increasingly important for people seeking COVID-19 testing and treatment. Yet many low-income uninsured noncitizens, including green-card holders, are excluded from such programs because of their immigration status, as this fact sheet explores.

Commentaries

April 2020

As U.S. Health-Care System Buckles under Pandemic, Immigrant & Refugee Professionals Could Represent a Critical Resource

In a time of critical shortages of U.S. health-care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, retired doctors are being called back to work and medical students are graduating on a fast track. There is another important pool that could be tapped: Immigrants and refugees who have college degrees in health fields but are working in low-skilled jobs or out of work. MPI estimates 263,000 immigrants are experiencing skill underutilization and could be a valuable resource.

Video, Audio, Webinars

March 5, 2020

Green Cards and Public Charge: Who Could Be Denied Based on Benefits Use?

On this webinar, MPI experts discussed the public-charge rule and released estimates of the populations that could be deemed ineligible for a green card based on existing benefits use. They examined the far larger consequences of the rule, through its "chilling effects" and imposition of a test aimed at assessing whether green-card applicants are likely to ever use a public benefit in the future. And they discussed how the latter holds the potential to reshape legal immigration to the United States.

Commentaries

March 2020

The Public-Charge Rule: Broad Impacts, But Few Will Be Denied Green Cards Based on Actual Benefits Use

While the Trump administration public-charge rule is likely to vastly reshape legal immigration based on its test to assess if a person might ever use public benefits in the future, the universe of noncitizens who could be denied a green card based on current benefits use is quite small. That's because very few benefit programs are open to noncitizens who do not hold a green card. This commentary offers estimates of who might be affected.

Policy Briefs

November 2019

Health Insurance Coverage of Immigrants and Latinos in the Kansas City Metro Area

Latinos and immigrants are at least twice as likely to lack health insurance coverage as the overall population in the Kansas City metropolitan area. This gap that has significant implications for the region, as Latinos and immigrants will form an ever-growing share of the area’s labor force and tax base amid anticipated declines in the native-born, non-Latino population.

Commentaries

October 2019

Health Insurance Test for Green-Card Applicants Could Sharply Cut Future U.S. Legal Immigration

A new Trump administration action requiring intending immigrants to prove they can purchase eligible health insurance within 30 days of arrival has the potential to block fully 65 percent of those who apply for a green card from abroad, MPI estimates.

Policy Briefs

August 2019

Leveraging the Potential of Home Visiting Programs to Serve Immigrant and Dual Language Learner Families

Home visiting programs for young families are growing in popularity across the United States, and have demonstrated their effectiveness in supporting maternal health and child well-being. At the same time, more infants and toddlers are growing up in immigrant families and households where a language other than English is spoken. Why then are these children under-represented in these programs? This brief explores common barriers, ways to address them, and why it is important to do so.

Commentaries

August 2019

Millions Will Feel Chilling Effects of U.S. Public-Charge Rule That Is Also Likely to Reshape Legal Immigration

The public-charge rule issued by the Trump administration in August 2019 will have profound effects on future immigration and on use of public benefits by millions of legal noncitizens and their U.S.-citizen family members. Complex standards for determining when an immigrant is likely to become a public charge could cause a significant share of the nearly 23 million noncitizens and U.S. citizens in benefits-using immigrant families to disenroll, as this commentary explains.

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