Impact of punitive immigration policies, parent-child separation and child detention on the mental health and development of children

Abstract

In April 2018, the US government introduced a ‘zero tolerance’ illegal immigration control strategy at the US-Mexico border resulting in the detention of all adults awaiting federal prosecution for illegal entry and the subsequent removal of their children to separate child shelters across the USA. By June 2018, over 2300 immigrant children, including infants, had been separated from their parents for immigration purposes. Media reports and scenes of distraught families ignited global condemnation of US immigration policy and fresh criticism of immigration detention practices.Detention of children for immigration purposes is known to be practised in over 100 countries worldwide, despite a significant body of research demonstrating the extensive harm of such policies. This review explores and contextualises the key potential impacts of family separation and detention of children for immigration purposes including damaged attachment relationships, traumatisation, toxic stress and wider detrimental impacts on immigrant communities. As such, it is critical for host nation governments to cease the practice of family separation and child detention for immigration control and promote postmigration policies that protect children from further harm, promote resilience and enable recovery.

Australian Media and Islamophobia: Representations of Asylum Seeker Children

“…These phenomena are not unique to the Australian context. Recent observations are made of punitive immigration policy decisions made by the Trump Administration in the USA, where asylum seeker children are being separated from their families and detained at separate sites (Wood 2018).…”

Processes of Sub-Citizenship: Neoliberal Statecrafting ‘Citizens,’ ‘Non-Citizens,’ and Detainable ‘Others’

“…(3) The US is the only country in the world that systematically separates and detains immigrant families en masse (Wood 2018). Australia is the only country in the world with a policy of mandatory detention and offshore processing of people seeking asylum who arrive without a valid visa (Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) n.d.).…”

“…Although there is overwhelming evidence that holding people in immigration detention is physically and mentally harmful to adults and children (Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) 2014; Amnesty International 2011, 2013, 2015, 2016; Inter-Agency Working Group (IAWG) to End Child Immigration Detention 2016; Keller et al 2017;Mares et al 2002;Moss 2015;Wood 2018), the US and Australia are among over 100 countries worldwide that are known to detain children for migration-related reasons (Wood 2018).…”

United States Immigration Policies in the Trump Era

“…According to Wood (2018), in 2015, 28 million children fled their home countries to other nations because of violence (p. 2). Wood (2018) adds that the migrants who are jailed by the U.S. government at the border with Mexico are mostly seeking asylum: "… from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador; chronically destabilised regions plagued by grave levels of human rights violations, insecurity, poverty, drug cartel infiltration, violence and corrupt justice systems. Crimi-nal gangs target children and mechanisms of exploitation and control are notoriously brutal" (Robbins, 2018: p. 2).…”

“…422-425; also see Partelow & Wolgin, 2018). Wood (2018) presents a number of negative implications as a result of the Trump administration's immigration policies that separate children from their parents and punish children such as placing them in cages: trauma, threatened attachment, toxic stress and dehumanization (pp. 2-4).…”