The Dream Act of 2017: A Developmental Perspective APA Congressional Briefing 11/29/2017 Carola Suárez-Orozco, Ph.D. University of California, Los Angeles https://gseis.ucla.edu/directory/carola-suarez-orozco/ csorozco@ucla.edu
BACKGROUND DATA 26.2% of U.S. children grow up in an immigrant headed household (Child Trends, 2014) 4.5 million citizen children live in mixed-status homes Another 4.5 million adult U.S. citizens live in mixed-status homes (Taylor, Lopez, Passel & Motel, 2011) Who are Early Childhood Arrivals? 1. 9 million potentially eligible (Capps, Fix, & Zong, 2017) Median age of entry 6 years old 70% have a family member who is a U.S. citizen DACA has protected 800,000 to date 690,000 currently fall under its protection Over half are over age 21 ¼ of these have children (who are U.S. citizens) 228,000 children will age in eligibility
COMMON CAUSE We are a nation of immigrants General consensus in public will across the political spectrum Fox News Poll Sept 28, 2017 62% agree it is important or very important to pass law to address Dreamers Fully 84% favor work permits 91 percent of Democrats agree 84 percent of Independents agree 80 percent of Republicans agree
ECONOMIC EVIDENCE IS QUITE CLEAR Immigrants and the subsequent 2 nd & 3 rd generations demonstrate high levels of economic integration (Waters & Pineau, 2015, National Academy of Science, 2015) Survey of 3,000+ DACA recipient found that majority were employed (91%) and nearly half have were enrolled in school (45%) (Wong, Martinez, Luna, et. al., 2017) Study simulating the economic effects of the DREAM Act on wages, educational attainment and GDP, found: A DREAM Act would increase GDP by 12.3 billion annually; Increase the wages of DREAMers; Would have minimal effect on the wages of natives (Edwards, Hsin, & Ortega, 2017)
Ecological Framework for Understanding Immigrant-Origin Child and Youth Outcomes POLITICAL & SOCIAL CONTEXT OF RECEPTION MICROSYSTEMS INDIVIDUAL LEVEL ~ Schools ~ Families OUTCOMES Developmental Academic progress Civic participation Labor market participation Psychological Adjustment Anxiety; Depression Resilience Acculturative Acquire language Form social, ethnic and national identities Develop sense of social belonging
AT THE INDIVIDUAL LEVEL Multiple Forms of Stress & Trauma (Yoshikawa, Suárez-Orozco & Gonzales, 2017) Ongoing worries of deportation of self Ongoing worries of deportation about loved ones Family separations Social Exclusion (Yoshikawa, Suárez-Orozco & Gonzales, 2017) Complicates identity formation Compromises sense of social belongingness High levels of Anxiety & Depression (Teranishi, et al, 2015; Venkataramani, et al, 2017; Yoshikawa et al., 2017)
AT THE FAMILY LEVEL IMPLICATIONS Deportations (Chaudry, et al., 2010) Family separations Food & Housing insecurity Children demonstrate increase in psychological symptoms Withdrawal; crying; school avoidance; disruptions in sleeping & eating; among others Does not just effect only undocumented children Citizen children are caught in aftershocks 4.5 million under 18 Another 4.5 who have now aged into adulthood
AT THE EDUCATIONAL LEVEL Pre-K Negative cognitive & language effects of parental status for citizen children prior to entering schools (Yoshikawa, Suárez-Orozco, & Gonzales, 2017) K-12 Frequent school transitions (Yoshikawa et al., 2017) Truncated aspirations & blocked opportunities Hostile & disrupted learning environments (Yoshikawa et al., 2017) (Rogers, 2017)
AT THE EDUCATIONAL LEVEL Post-Secondary An estimated 225,000 attending (Pew Hispanic Institute, 2015) Blocked access State-by-state variability in tuition policies & access to financial aid Data from a large public university comparing undocumented college students to peers: (Hsin & Reed, 2017) Higher high school GPAs in community college More likely to graduate from college than their peers; Obtained higher GPAs relative to their undocumented peers Survey of 909 undocumented college students attending 264 institutions in 34 states (Suárez-Orozco, Katsiaficas, Birchal, et al., 2015) Under-matching (often attending community colleges first) Deep financial concerns vast majority juggle work and school DACA Provided Economic Relief Diminished worries about deportation of self but augmented anxiety for family
VOICES OF LONGING TO BELONG Not having the same rights and benefits as my peers made me feel like a foreigner even though I now feel closer to the U.S. culture than to my Mexican culture I was raised here it is my home sweet home, so why is it wrong for me to want to stay, serve, help and work here? I too love the U.S.A.
RESOURCES Yoshikawa, H., Suárez-Orozco, C. & Gonzalez, R., G. (2016). Unauthorized status and youth development in the United States: Consensus statement for the Society on Research on Adolescence. Journal of Research on Adolescence. 27(1) 4-19. Suárez-Orozco, C., Katsiaficas, D., Birchall, O., et al. (2015). Undocumented undergraduates on college campuses: Understanding their challenges, assets, and what it takes to make an UndocuFriendly campus. Harvard Education Review, 85(3),427-463. American Psychological Association (2012). Crossroads: The psychology of immigration in the 21 st century. APA Presidential Task Force on Immigration. Washington, DC: Author. http://www.apa.org/topics/immigration/executivesummary.pdf Suárez-Orozco, C., Bang, H. J., & Kim, H.Y. (2011). I felt like my heart was staying behind : Psychological implications of immigrant family separations and reunifications. Journal of Adolescent Research, 26(1), 22 257. Suárez-Orozco, C., Yoshikawa, Y., Teranishi, R., & Suárez-Orozco, M. (2011).Living in the shadows: The developmental implications of unauthorized status. Harvard Education Review, 81(3) 438-472.
REFERENCES Capps R, Fix M, Zong J. (2017). The education and work profiles of the DACA population. Available at: www.migrationpolicy. org/ esearch/ educationand-work- profiles- daca- population. Chaudry, A., Capps, R., Pedroza, J. M., & Castaneda, R. M. (2010). Facing our future: Children in the aftermath of immigration enforcement. Washington, DC: The Urban Institute. Retrieved May 18, 2011. Retrieved from http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=related:3heh1vxdlw4j:scholar.google.com/&hl=en&num=20&as_sdt=0,5 Edwards, R., Hsin, A. and Ortega, F. (2017). Quantifying the Gains from Legalizing the DREAMers (MacArthur Foundation, Grant No. 15-1643). Hsin, A. & Reed, H. (2017). Effects of Legal Status on the Educational Attainment of Undocumented College Students: Evidence from a Large Public University. (William T. Grant Foundation, Grant No. 186279) Suárez-Orozco, C., Bang, H. J., & Kim, H.Y. (2011). I felt like my heart was staying behind : Psychological implications of immigrant family separations and reunifications. Journal of Adolescent Research, 26(1), 22 257. Suárez-Orozco, C., Yoshikawa, Y., Teranishi, R., & Suárez-Orozco, M. (2011). Living in the shadows: The developmental implications of unauthorized status. Harvard Education Review, 81(3) 438-472. Suárez-Orozco, C., Katsiaficas, D., Birchall, O., et al. (2015). Undocumented undergraduates on college campuses: Understanding their challenges, assets, and what it takes to make an UndocuFriendly campus. Harvard Education Review, 85(3),427-463. Venkataramani, A. S., Shah, S. J., O'Brien, R., Kawachi, I., & Tsai, A. C. (2017). Health consequences of the US Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) immigration programme: a quasi-experimental study. The Lancet Public Health, 2(4), e175-e181. Waters, M., & Pineau, M. (2015). Integrating immigrants into the United States: Americans all Consensus Report of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Integrating Immigrants into American Society. Washington, DC National Academy Press. https://www.nap.edu/catalog/21746/the-integration-of-immigrants-into-american-society Wong T, Martinez Rosas G, Luna A, et al. (2017). DACA recipients economic and educational gains continue to grow. Available at: https://www. americanprogress. org/ issues/immigration/ news/ 2017/ 08/ 28/ 437956/daca- recipientseconomic- educationalgains-continue- grow/ Yoshikawa, H., Suárez-Orozco, C. & Gonzalez, R., G. (2016). Unauthorized status and youth development in the United States: Consensus statement for the Society on Research on Adolescence. Journal of Research on Adolescence. 27(1) 4-19.
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals DACA ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA Under 31 years prior to 6/15/2012 Arrived prior to 16 th birthday Continually resided in US until application Physically present on 6/15/2012 and at time of application No lawful status on 6/15/2012 Currently enrolled in school, graduated from high school (or certificate of completion) Not convicted of felony, major misdemeanor, or 3 or more minor misdemeanors