MCAAP Committees
Immigrant Health
The Immigrant Health Committee of the MCAAP serves our colleagues who care for children of immigrant families; inform ourselves, our fellow MCAAP members, and the public of the special challenges immigrant children face; and support advocacy efforts that can improve their health and well-being.
To start with a few numbers: In 2009, there were 948,061 immigrants in Massachusetts, comprising 14.4 percent of our population. (click here for more information). Approximately 185,000 undocumented immigrants live in Massachusetts, according to recent estimates. (click here for more information). In 2012, 1,401,415 children lived in Massachusetts: 15.6% were Hispanic, 7.9% were black and 6% were Asian, the census groups which comprise the most immigrants, though these “racial” or “ethnic” categories can be seen as meaningless. For example, Brazilians make up the largest group of immigrants from any single country in Massachusetts – and they may define themselves as any one of these “racial” categories.
Many MCAAP members are caring for immigrant children, children with one or both parents not born in the United States, as these numbers show. We hope to provide useful resources for our colleagues.
Children in immigrant families face numerous serious challenges, which will be more fully addressed in a later post. For children with an undocumented parent or relative, a major, overarching social determinant of poor health has been the vast scaling up, throughout the United States, of immigration imprisonments and deportations since the mid-2000s (http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/02/22/us/politics/growth-in-deportations.html?ref=us&_r=0). In the 6 years of the current presidential administration alone, over 2,000,000 people were deported. Between July 1, 2010, and Sept. 31, 2012, nearly 23 percent of all deportations—or, 204,810 deportations—were issued for parents with United States citizen children. The effects of these events, and of the constant threat of losing a parent to deportation, have been devastating. Not only children of parents threatened with deportation, but all children who see their playmates or classmates lose a parent and wonder whether it could happen to them, are impacted.
The Council on Community Pediatrics has a Special Interest Group for Immigrant Health at the national level. This is a great way to stay in touch with colleagues across the country who take care of immigrant children, share information and opinions, and exchange resources. To join, please email cocp@aap.org
Please contact Cathleen Haggerty at chaggerty@mcaap.org for more information.
