“Immigration Policy and Immigrant Families”

Immigrant families are heavily influenced by immigration policies. Laws determining who may legally enter the country recognize certain types of family relationships while discounting others. Immigration enforcement and border policies shape family migration strategies in home communities and contribute to the separation of children from their parents. Immigrant families encounter unique stresses related to settlement, language and cultural differences, race/ethnicity, and low income—all complicated by immigrants’ legal status. These issues will remain highly significant in the future given the continuing growth and geographic spread of immigrants across American communities. This symposium brings together an exceptional panel of scholars whose research is devoted to these issues and who aim to better understand how public policies and practices are impacting the large and growing number of immigrants.

The Symposium on Family Issues is sponsored annually by The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development along with Penn State’s Population Research Institute and Social Science Research Institute. We are grateful for support from the Penn State Departments of Sociology and Criminology, Psychology, and Human Development and Family Studies, in addition to support from the Child Study Center, the Prevention Research Center, and Clinical and Translational Science Institute.