Introduction
Currently, America suffers from an influx of immigrants who either entered US soil legally seeking asylum or by crossing the border illegally. The population of immigrants in the US has risen tremendously, and by 2015 it had gone up to more than 37 million adult immigrants and 3 million children immigrants of below the age of 17 years. Out of these immigrants, 53 percent are individuals from the south either of Caribbean Origin or Hispanic from Latin America who entered the USA through the Mexican-American border. The immigrants coming to the US through the Mexican-American border are at risk of suffering from trauma in their life because of the life-threatening experiences they face in the process of migration or due to parent-child separation, and this trauma has a long-term effect in their lives (Gutierrez, 17).
The Trauma of Refugees and Latino Immigrants
Most of the refugees in the US came from war-torn countries and because of the hardships they encountered before finally entering into America they are susceptible to Trauma at a rate ranging between 14-19 percent. Some of the victims entered the US as children who were separated from their parents while the other immigrants survived near-death experiences, went through torture or witnessed their family members or friends being killed. The problem that the refugees encounter is the same as what the Latino immigrants who in most cases entered the country illegally go through. The decision of the parents to migrate to the US and also take their children to the US is influenced by various factors among them poverty in their native country and war. The majority of the immigrants are living in low social, economic status with low education level, and they cannot afford or do not know the legal procedure of immigration, and therefore they do not seek authorization to cross the border. In the process of migration, they have to endure a lot of hardships including traveling for days, walking in the desert and going for long without food and water while struggling to enter America undetected. These experiences before and during migration leave the immigrants traumatized and eventually affecting their mental health for instance development of PTSD (Alegría et al., 362).
Parent-Child Separation and its Effects
In most cases, the non-refugee immigrants whose quest to enter America is inspired by the realization of American dreams take the risk of migrating alone while leaving the children behind under the care of friends or family member as a strategy of protecting them. These parents later find a safer way of smuggling the children into the US after they have settled. The parent-child separation however adversely affects these kids because of lack of proper care in the absence of their parents and also lack of a person who can develop an emotional bond with them. Parents, on the other hand, live with guilt, shame, and regret for not being good parents who are there for their children to support them. Another factor that encourages Mexicans to opt for the unauthorized entry is because of the limited accessibility to visas that could allow them to go to the US and even if they acquire these visas they elongate their stay in America and eventually become illegal immigrants. The process of crossing the border illegally has a lot of challenges and put those involved at risk of development of PTSD and Trauma. These risks become worse to underage children if they are also migrating using the same procedure because they are highly vulnerable to the development of mental problems due to the cognitive immaturity that cannot help them prevent the development of trauma. The risk is minimal if the children are traveling alongside their family members because they can provide protection as well as help them overcome trauma due to migration hardship. However, upon crossing the border, these families may find themselves in the hands of the American border patrol unit which then separate the children from their parents when detaining their parents for prosecution. These sudden removals of the children from their parents in a foreign land where they know no one else apart from their detained parents leave them with enormous pain and traumatized an experience that will continue to affect them for a long time.
Racial-Ethnic Discrimination and Marginalization
Upon stepping on the US soil, a new challenge emerges contrary to what majority of the immigrants had expected to experience in this new land; this increases the possibility of them suffering from the trauma that could even lead to PTSD symptoms. In addition to other hardships that Latino immigrants face due to their being in a foreign country illegally, they also experience discrimination based on their ethnicity. This racial-ethnic discrimination affects the immigrants negatively and acts as “a biological stressor promoting biochemical changes that increase the risk of poor physical and mental health outcomes” (Pereira). Because of this discrimination, most of the immigrants feel unprotected powerless and living under threat which makes this experience both stressful and traumatizing to minority communities such as the undocumented immigrants. The illegal immigrants from Mexico live in areas that are more impoverished and that are prone to crime because of the fear of arrest, prosecution, and deportation, as well as economic challenges. Their children go to schools in the same neighborhoods that lack the most basic resources to aid the smooth learning of the high number of students that they admit. This environment exposes the children and their parents to further discrimination and violence and hence increasing their likelihood of being traumatized and putting them at a higher risk of developing PTSD. By living in the marginalized neighborhood, the immigrants find it difficult to access essential public resources like health facilities which make their settlement more difficult and therefore increasing their stress. In addition to the sense of separation, the difficulty in the accessibility to social resources in the new land by the immigrants is also caused by the language barrier.
Underdevelopment and Poverty
Although since the beginning of the 21st century a lot of economic changes have occurred between the two neighboring nations Mexico and USA regarding international trade agreements but the southern region of America has remained underdeveloped and with widespread poverty amongst its residents. Majority of illegal immigrants from Mexico settles in these regions that are characterized with lack of potable water, well-established sewerage system, substandard housing, high rate of unemployment, lack of accessibility to quality education and violent crime. This marginalized group suffers from poor health care as a result of limited infrastructure. Due to the proximity of the area to the porous Mexico-American border, it is prone to drug trafficking as well. In addition to the high prevalence of heroin and cocaine in the cities along the Mexican border such as Texas, corrupt medical practitioners are making the availability of medications such as diazepam and Rohypnol easy hence encouraging the youth to go into drug and substance abuse and in the long run become addicts. The areas also experience violence due to the fight between drug cartels who engage in battles for control of the illicit drug business. The situation of violence makes this area insecure and from the report released in 2006 by FBI border towns such as Tijuana experienced murder at the rate of one death per day (Pereira). The fear that such a high rate of insecurity make the undocumented children and their parents to be more traumatized as well as makes the process of trauma treatment complicated.
Acculturation and Identity Crisis
The pressure of acculturation that comes after the Mexican immigrants have migrated to the United States may have an impact on their physical health. Although the trauma that the immigrants encounter before and during immigration has nothing to do with acculturation, it affects how these individuals finally handle their stress when they eventually settle in America and therefore their ability to mitigate the risk of PTSD symptoms. Acculturation may lead to undocumented immigrants to develop better skills in the language of the host country as well as their culture. Acquisition of English language skills and learning of the American culture could be beneficial to the immigrants because it enables them to navigate through the American system as well as able to access institutional resources such as health facilities (Chavez). However, also spending prolonged time in America after crossing the border could mean overexposure to stressors such as neighborhood disorder and discrimination as well as the perfection of English language at the expense of Spanish language skills. As a result of the adoption of American culture the ties with their fellow Mexican countrymen start diminishing, and therefore their accessibility to ethnocentric resources becomes limited as a result of their Americanization. Also after giving in to pressure to adopt American culture through assimilation to fit into the American society and avoid marginalization, they face enormous criticism from their friends, families and other people of Mexican origin for losing their native culture. The children are the most affected because as they “adapt to and absorb the new culture—especially by going to school and learning English—mothers and fathers may encounter difficulty in knowing how to parent their ‘Americanized’ children” (Flores, 7). The differences that exist in the level of acculturation is one of the primary reason leading to post-immigration trauma because the Americanized individuals are ashamed and guilty always because of the disapproval they get from those who have chosen to conserve their Mexican culture.
Racial Discrimination and Marginalization
The immigrants from Latin America are racially different and despite assimilation to conform to the social norms in American society, they may not be accepted by the Native American citizens as one of them as is the case with the immigrants from Europe. This discrimination intensifies with illegal immigrants in their places of work where they are mistreated as second-class individuals with no rights to justice and equal treatment. The study “shows that perceived discrimination correlates positively with psychological distress and negatively with a sense of personal control and that experiences of discrimination may lead to symptoms of depression and anxiety among some immigrant populations” (Pereira). The American society since the era of slavery has held on to the racial stereotypes that portray Mexicans negatively as untrustworthy, dirty, impulsive, aggressive, immature, oversexed and lazy. This kind of notion when immigrants especially young Mexicans come across it they start developing self-hatred.
Challenges Faced by Undocumented Immigrants
Crossing the Mexican-American border into America whether legal or illegal increases the stress that the Mexican families are subjected to as they try to settle in American society. After the establishment of the DACA program, it was found out that out of 11 million illegal immigrants residing in America six million originated from Latin America (Gutierrez, 13). The undocumented immigrants are not allowed to apply for a driving license, social security number, and work permit. For this reason, it becomes challenging to seek employment in the formal sector and cannot access government Higher education loans making it difficult for parents to take their kids to universities and colleges because of the high cost and because they do not have a job that can offer them a steady income. Because of the inability to obtain a work permit, the undocumented Latinos only remains with the option of seeking employment in the informal sectors where they are mistreated, forced to work for low wages, under inhumane working conditions and for a longer time (Mier, 1772). The immigrants have no otherwise because of the fear of deportation and therefore have to accept to be treated like slaves. These people suffer from trauma as a result of violent practices such as rape and assault from people who take advantage of their situation. However, they fear to seek justice because they believe by doing so they may end up being deported. It is as a result of such severe conditions that most of the individuals who have crossed the border report feeling depressed, sad, isolated and lonely.
Conclusion
The majority of the undocumented immigrants in America are Latinos who came from Mexico. These immigrants anticipated finding the best life in America however that is not the case because after struggling with traumatizing experiences during immigration, they also find difficult time settling in American society where they are subjected to discrimination and marginalization. Crossing the border causes more harm than good to the Latino families by subjecting them to trauma and hence increasing their likelihood of developing PTSD symptoms. Because of the lack of proper immigration documentation undocumented have to live in impoverished neighborhoods that lack the most basic amenities and expose them to crime and drug abuse and therefore making their lives more difficult. Although discrimination is still an inhibiting factor to self-development of Latinos living in America following the right channel during immigration will make them able to seek justice, secure employment and pursue their American dreams without the fear of deportation.
Work Cited
Alegría, M., Canino, G., Shrout, P. E., Woo, M., Duan, N., Vila, D., Prevalence of mental illness in immigrant and non-immigrant U.S. Latino groups. American Journal of Psychiatry, 165(3), 359-369. (2008).
Chavez, M. C., & Guerra, I. L. Cultural beliefs and mental health among Mexican-Americans. Paper presented at the 134th Annual Meeting and Exposition of the American Public Health Association, Boston, Massachusetts. (2006).
Gutierrez Barbara. The trauma of Immigrant Children Linked to Physical Ailments. The University of Miami. 2018. 1-21.https://news.miami.edu/stories/2018/08/trauma-of-immigrant-children-linked-to-physical-ailments.html
Flores Luis. Addressing the Mental Health Problems of Border and Immigrant Youth. NCTSN. P 1-21. https://undocumented.ucdavis.edu/sites/g/files/dgvnsk4311/files/local_resources/Online_Resources/addressing_the_mental_health_problems_border_immigrant_youth.pdf
Mier, N., Ory, M. G., Zhan, D., Conkling, M., Sharkey, J. R., & Burdine, J. N. Health-related quality of life among Mexican Americans living in colonies at the Texas-Mexico border. Social Science & Medicine, 66(8), 1760-1771. (2008).
Pereira Krista, M. Painful Passages: Traumatic Experiences and Post-Traumatic Stress among Immigrant Latino Adolescents and their Primary Caregivers. NCBI. 2013. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3875301/#R82
