Journal Article

The Burden of Deportation on Children in Mexican Immigrant Families

Dreby, Joanna

2012

Overview

In 2011, a record number of foreign-born individuals were detained and removed from the United States. This article looks at the impact enforcement policies have had on Mexican families more broadly and children specifically. Drawing on interviews with 91 parents and 110 children in 80 households, the author suggests that, similar to the injury pyramid used by public health professionals, a deportation pyramid best depicts the burden of deportation on children. At the top of the pyramid are instances that have had the most severe consequences on children's daily lives: families in which a deportation has led to permanent family dissolution. But enforcement policies have had the greatest impact on children at the bottom of the pyramid. Regardless of legal status or their family members' involvement with immigration authorities, children in Mexican immigrant households describe fear about their family stability and confusion over the impact legality has on their lives.

• Publisher: Blackwell Publishing Ltd,Wiley Subscription Services,Wiley
• Subject: Child. Socialization / childhood/children / Children / Children & youth / Citizenship / Confusion / Departments / Deportation / Dissolution / Enforcement / Ethnography / Families & family life / Family / Family (Sociological Unit) / Family Stability / family stress or crisis / Fathers / Hispanic Americans / Hispanic people / Hispanics / Households / Housing authorities / Human ecology and demography / Immigrants / Immigration / Immigration Policy / immigration/migrant families / Injuries / Legal status / Legality / Medical personnel / Mexican Americans / Mexicans / Mexico / Migrant Children / Mothers / National Security / Noncitizens / Of General Interest / Parent-child relations / Parents / Police / Public Health / Relatives / Sociology / Sociology of migrations / Sociology of the family. Age groups / U.S.A / Young Children