NEW YORK CITY - Deportation has consistently been a looming fear over undocumented immigrants' life. But this is not only a major fear to just illegal migrants, but also for documented ones, a new study from Lehigh University shows.
The 2010s were a period of increased immigration discourse. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), for instance, took the center stage several times throughout the decade as it sought to protect the so-called "Dreamers." But, at the same time, major political figures like Donald Trump dominated the national agenda with their anti-immigrant rhetoric.
Events of this nature did not slip Latinos' minds. In fact, they greatly affected their mental health regardless of their legal status in the U.S., the study showed.
A group of sociologists at Lehigh University analyzed data from 2011-2018 and found an increase in psychological distress among Latinos, both citizens and noncitizens, in the U.S.
"How people are talking about immigration and how salient immigration and deportation are to day-to-day life is potentially equally as important to distress as these more dramatic changes" Johnson explains.
In other words, major changes to policy and the political landscape, coupled with day-to-day activities, are prone to affect Latino's mental state.
When Obama announced the halted deportations of DACA, and the establishment of Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA), naturalized citizens saw relief.
Oppositely, Trump's anti-immigration policies, ICE's increased detentions or even conversations online were major indicators of increased anxiety and fear among Latinos, the study showed.
Interestingly, U.S.-born Latinos are not susceptible to deportation, but these events still impact their psychological health, the study founds. Johnson and her team determined that U.S.-born Latinos experienced higher distress in periods where there are spikes in Google searches to topics related to deportation and immigration.
"The fact that racial and ethnic divisions are so prominent that even citizens feel the threat of deportation, and distress related to deportation threat, is really striking," Johnson said.
A study from November which focused on academic performance yielded similar results. George Washington University professor Kathleen Roche concluded that ""political rhetoric or policies to deport immigrants can compromise mental health, result in poor grades, and increase substance abuse and social problems lasting into adulthood."
Evidence has shown her that "Latino teenagers report worrying about their future job and educational prospects because of the immigrant environment; avoid police or seeking medical care due to immigration threats; and report being warned by their parents to avoid authorities because of immigration authorities."
"Related to anti-immigrant rhetoric, our research shows that being discriminated against by teachers, classmates, and/or community members due to being Latino significantly predicts worse mental health and worse school performance over time," Roche said. She added that "actually experiencing the deportation or detention of a family member relates to a 2- to 3-fold higher risk of Latino/a adolescents' suicidal ideation, substance use, and clinically meaningful levels of outward-directed mental health problems such as aggression and conduct disorder."
As the 2024 election comes around, these researchers are looking for possible antidotes to these trends. Creating a sense of cultural belonging could be one of them.
"We concretely show that the deportation-focused approach to immigration that the U.S. has been taking is psychologically damaging even to U.S. citizens," Johnson says. "Moving forward, we can make the argument for policy change around deportation, but equally so,
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