E.g., 06/01/2024
E.g., 06/01/2024
NCIIP: Health

NCIIP: Health

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Commentaries
December 2020

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

ChillingEffects ACSdata iStock Commentary Dec.2020
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.

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Commentaries
December 2020

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

HealthCare BrainWaste Commentary CDC
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.

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Recent Activity

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Reports
November 2016
The Nutritional Health of Young Refugee Children Resettling in Washington State
By  Elizabeth Dawson-Hahn, Suzinne Pak-Gorstein, Andrea J. Hoopes and Jasmine Matheson
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Reports
October 2016
Mental Health Risks and Resilience among Somali and Bhutanese Refugee Parents
By  B. Heidi Ellis, Erin N. Hulland , Alisa B. Miller, Colleen Barrett Bixby, Barbara Lopes Cardozo and Theresa S. Betancourt
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Multimedia
October 27, 2015
Young Refugee Children: Their Schooling Experiences in the United States and in Countries of First Asylum
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Reports
October 2015
The Educational and Mental Health Needs of Syrian Refugee Children
By  Selcuk R. Sirin and Lauren Rogers-Sirin
A group of older Korean adults sitting in chairs at a Med-Cal event at the Korean Resource Center
Commentaries
October 2015
It is Time for Federal Agencies to Do More to Improve the Provision of Language Access Services
By  Margie McHugh
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Multimedia
September 11, 2015
Growing Up in America: The Extent and Impacts of Discrimination on Young Children from Immigrant Families
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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
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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

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Recent Activity

Reports
November 2016

The Nutritional Health of Young Refugee Children Resettling in Washington State

Refugee children are vulnerable to health and nutrition risks that can have long-term consequences for their development and well-being. This report examines the prevalence of malnutrition—from stunting and wasting to overweight and obesity—among refugee children from birth to age 10, using data from an overseas medical screening exam before they were resettled in Washington State between 2012 and 2014.

Reports
October 2016

Mental Health Risks and Resilience among Somali and Bhutanese Refugee Parents

Somali and Bhutanese refugees are two of the largest groups recently resettled in the United States and Canada. This report examines factors that might promote or undermine the mental health and overall well-being of children of these refugees, with regard to factors such as past exposure to trauma, parental mental health, educational attainment, social support, and discrimination.

Video, Audio, Webinars
October 27, 2015

Young Refugee Children: Their Schooling Experiences in the United States and in Countries of First Asylum

In this webinar, the authors of three papers on the experiences of refugee children present their findings, with a focus on how such experiences affect their mental health and education.

Reports
October 2015

The Educational and Mental Health Needs of Syrian Refugee Children

Approximately 40 percent of the 4 million-plus Syrians who have fled the country are under age 12, most encountering disruptions and barriers to their education in countries of first asylum. This report examines the experiences of Syrian refugee children, their educational and mental health needs,and possible responses that governments should consider in resettling this vulnerable population.

Commentaries
October 2015

It is Time for Federal Agencies to Do More to Improve the Provision of Language Access Services

Whether driven by pragmatism, local laws, or federal civil-rights provisions, state and local governments and agencies across the United States increasingly have designed and implemented language access services (i.e. translation and interpretation) in response to growing Limited English Proficient populations. This commentary argues it is time for the federal government to follow suit.

Video, Audio, Webinars
September 11, 2015

Growing Up in America: The Extent and Impacts of Discrimination on Young Children from Immigrant Families

On this webinar, researchers explore the types of discrimination that young children of immigrants may experience, the related educational, psychological, and social impacts, and recommendations for addressing discrimination.

Reports
September 2015

Implications of Immigration Enforcement Activities for the Well-Being of Children in Immigrant Families: A Review of the Literature

Rising immigration enforcement in the U.S. interior over the past decade increased the chances that the estimated 5.3 million children living with unauthorized immigrant parents, the vast majority of them born in the United States, could experience the deportation of a parent. This report reviews the evidence on the impacts on children, finding significant and long-lasting harm can occur at emotional, economic, developmental, and academic levels.

Reports
September 2015

Health and Social Service Needs of U.S.-Citizen Children with Detained or Deported Immigrant Parents

This Urban Institute-MPI report offers findings from fieldwork in study sites in California, Florida, Illinois, South Carolina, and Texas, examining the involvement of families with a deported parent with health and social service systems, and barriers to access. The report finds that economic hardship is highly prevalent following detention and deportation of a parent, while child welfare system involvement is rarer.

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