Report
The Changing Face of the Unaccompanied Alien Child (2012)
The Changing Face of the Unaccompanied Alien Child: A Portrait of Foreign-Born Children in Federal Foster Care and How to Best Meet Their Needs
In June 2011, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops/Migration and Refugee Services (USCCB/MRS) began an analysis of children placed in the Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) and Unaccompanied Refugee Minor (URM) foster care programs. To explore the changing face of the children coming into care, USCCB/MRS considered children referred for foster care services from the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS)/Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) between October 1, 2007, and June 1, 2011. Of the 279 children referred to USCCB/MRS, the sample size for this paper included 98 children from across the study years. The goal of this paper is to inform ORR and other stakeholders about the profile of unaccompanied children entering foster care and how to better serve them and their needs. Through a greater understanding of the changing face of the UAC/URM population, all stakeholders can better shape their organizational capacity development to meet the increasingly complex needs of these children.
This paper provides an in-depth analysis of the profile of children coming into federal foster care and how that profile has changed over the years. Across all study years, male referrals dominated, accounting for 65 percent, while 35 percent of the referrals were females. However, in fiscal year 2010, the number of female referrals more than doubled compared to previous years. The average age of children arriving in the United States and being referred to foster care was 16.02 for UAC and 16.38 for URM. The majority of children coming into care migrated from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. Children from these countries also reported a high incidence of violence in their home country as a reason for migration. Other reported reasons for migrating remained constant over the study years and included escaping violence in their homes, escaping abusive situations, reuniting with family, and seeking better educational and employment opportunities. However, children also have begun presenting with more complex needs and higher incidences of trauma, mental health issues, and substance use histories. Therefore, it was not surprising to find that about 85 percent of children in the study sample reported having some type of traumatic experience prior to entering ORR custody.