Working With Immigrant Families

When families migrate, they often separate and then reunify. Cultural competency with immigrant children and families requires more than just learning about their culture. It also includes an understanding of the process of migration, the reasons families migrate, and the process of acculturation and related family or marital stressors. Organizations should incorporate cultural competence into every level of their structure. This section includes resources to help professionals work with immigrant families in a culturally competent manner and build culturally competent organizations, including the domestic violence service providers. It also includes resources specifically for immigrant families below. 

Cultural competency of workers

Child Welfare
Bridging Refugee Youth and Children’s Services
Provides population-specific toolkits and online trainings for service providers assisting immigrant and refugee families navigating the child welfare system.

Cultural Competency in Child Welfare Practice: A Bridge Worth Building
Bridging Refugee Youth and Children’s Services
Shares best-practice approaches and real-world examples for increasing collaboration and understanding between child welfare workers and refugee and immigrant families.

Refugee Trauma
National Child Traumatic Stress Network
Offers information about the accurate identification, assessment, and treatment of trauma associated with refugee migration in order to support professionals serving this population.

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Culturally competent child welfare agencies

Best Practices to Support Immigrant Families Involved in the Child Welfare System (PDF - 502 KB)
Center on Immigration and Child Welfare (2019)
Highlights agency- and practitioner-level best practices for supporting immigrant families.

Family and Community Centered Child Welfare Practice With Refugees and Immigrants
Bridging Refugee Youth and Children’s Services
Reviews family- and community-centered child welfare models and the ways in which they can inform culturally competent, tailored services for refugees and immigrants. The resources include toolkits, such as the following:

Language Access (PDF - 299 KB)
Dettlaff & O’Grady (2015)
Center for Immigration and Child Welfare
Discusses Federal, State, and local language access policies and their effect on increasing access for linguistically diverse, child welfare-involved families.

Meaningful Ties for Transnational Families (PDF - 8,806 KB)
Southern Arizona Transnational Task Force
Provides a series of guidelines for judges, attorneys, and child welfare personnel working with children and families who are also navigating U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement cases.

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Domestic violence

ASISTA
Provides centralized assistance and resources to those advocating for noncitizen survivors of violence in the immigration law arena, including training for lawyers, domestic violence and sexual assault advocates, law enforcement personnel, and civil and criminal court judges.

Immigrant Crime Victim Access to Federally Assisted Housing [Webinar]
Violence Against Women (2017)
Describes government-funded programs providing immigrant victims of domestic violence and sexual assault with emergency shelter and housing.

Legal Information: Federal
WomensLaw.org
Provides visa information and useful resources for victims of domestic violence and crime. This resource also provides information about applying for victim assistance, refugee status, and asylum in the United States.

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Resources for immigrant families

Find Resources and Contacts in Your State
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Refugee Resettlement
Lists State-specific resources to support immigrant and refugee families.

USA Hello
Offers resources on education, employment, citizenship, and resettlement for immigrant and refugee families.

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