CHAPTER 3: Educating the Children of Undocumented Immigrant Parents: The Impact of Trauma on Citizen Children’s Development in the US

The purpose of this chapter is to illuminate the complexity of issues surrounding the education of citizen children of undocumented immigrant parents living within the United States and to explicate the impact of associated trauma on the children’s development. Relevant aspects of immigration and trauma are identified and analyzed through the multi-systemic prism of the bioecological model of human development, with the intention of raising awareness among educators, psychologists, counselors, and school policy stakeholders. Issues relating to the intersection of trauma and its impact on the education of citizen children, across parental and school microsystems, are discussed and elaborated, highlighting the context of risk surrounding this growing segment of the population. Traumatic events, like witnessing the deportation of undocumented parents and siblings, family upheaval, and instances of education-related language brokering are explained in terms of the ecosystemic and developmental dimensions of the model. Illustrative scenarios, grounded in research and clinical experience, are offered. The authors conclude by focusing on resiliency and the cultivation of protective factors within the multiple environs of this vulnerable group of America’s children, suggesting potential interventions and enhanced policy and practice of benefit to the children.