Journal of Public Child Welfare
Volume 9, Issue 3, 2015, Pages 299-321

Fear Factors and Their Effects on Child Protection Practice With Undocumented Immigrant Families—“A Lot of My Families Are Scared and Won't Reach Out” (Article)

Slayter E.* , Križ K.
  • a School of Social Work, Salem State University, Salem, MA, United States
  • b Department of Sociology, Emmanuel College, Boston, MA, United States

Abstract

This study analyzes child protection workers' perceptions of the causes of immigrant families' fears of child protection systems (CPS) and the effects of these fears on child protection practice based on 24 qualitative interviews conducted with child protection caseworkers in the Northeastern United States. Workers reported three major fear factors among immigrant families: fear of CPS involvement leading to detention and deportation, fear of child removal, and fear of CPS as a potentially repressive government entity. Workers experienced these fears as barriers to rapport-building and led to service initiation and access barriers. © 2015, Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Author Keywords

Deportation case practice child protection Undocumented immigrant families Fear Child welfare Immigration

Index Keywords

[No Keywords available]
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84938898200&doi=10.1080%2f15548732.2015.1044765&partnerID=40&md5=514ab1aecb4537700a1751bd9dfd0cd2
DOI: 10.1080/15548732.2015.1044765
ISSN: 15548732
Cited by: 1
Original Language: English