Tag Archives: immigration

International Students in Psychology: An Overlooked Group?

The number of international students enrolled in U.S. universities declined since the 2016/2017 academic year (Institute of International Education; IIE, 2019).  While data for the years 2019/2020 are yet to be released, there is no doubt that trend will continue to decline given the abrasive conditions that foreign students continue to experience in the U.S. With the addition of a pandemic, systemic racism and police brutality, and specific policies differentially targeting immigrants and immigration, international students’ concerns are currently exacerbated by substantial threats to the continuation of their academic journeys and ambitions.

International students in psychology have been uniquely impacted by the institutional changes in response to the syndemic.  Some of the direct effects to this population span across the areas of their immigration status, academic responsibilities, career opportunities, financial stability, safety, and mental health and wellbeing. Often these concerns are overlooked or not prioritized.  

International Status: The stringent immigration and visa regulations applicable to international students in psychology have compelled them to limit their experiences and access to opportunities. The current syndemic in the U.S. only exacerbates this system. Students are unable to renew their existing visas and/or obtain authorizations for further training, disrupting the sensitive timelines for foreign students and professionals to commence and/or complete training; it also interferes with their ability to remain within status thereby creating extreme worry about lawful presence and work in the U.S.

Academic Responsibilities:  Given the unsettling current presentation of COVID- 19 in the U.S., home governments have requested that certain populations return home.  While programs have offered online instruction to these students, the significant time differences between the U.S. and students’ home countries have made learning an arduous task and minimally satisfying. Additionally, the inability to be physically present interferes with international students accruing practicum hours to secure externships and internships. As such, international students may be severely hindered in their practical experiences and hour accumulation, ultimately being disfavored when applying for internships and externships.  

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International Students in Psychology: An Overlooked Group?

The number of international students enrolled in U.S. universities declined since the 2016/2017 academic year (Institute of International Education; IIE, 2019). While data for the years 2019/2020 are yet to be released, there is no doubt that trend will continue to decline given the abrasive conditions that foreign students continue to experience in the U.S. With the addition of a pandemic, systemic racism and police brutality, and specific policies differentially targeting immigrants and immigration, international students’ concerns are currently exacerbated by substantial threats to the continuation of their academic journeys and ambitions.

International students in psychology have been uniquely impacted by the institutional changes in response to the syndemic. Some of the direct effects to this population span across the areas of their immigration status, academic responsibilities, career opportunities, financial stability, safety, and mental health and wellbeing. Often these concerns are overlooked or not prioritized.

International Status: The stringent immigration and visa regulations applicable to international students in psychology have compelled them to limit their experiences and access to opportunities. The current syndemic in the U.S. only exacerbates this system. Students are unable to renew their existing visas and/or obtain authorizations for further training, disrupting the sensitive timelines for foreign students and professionals to commence and/or complete training; it also interferes with their ability to remain within status thereby creating extreme worry about lawful presence and work in the U.S.

Academic Responsibilities: Given the unsettling current presentation of COVID- 19 in the U.S., home governments have requested that certain populations return home. While programs have offered online instruction to these students, the significant time differences between the U.S. and students’ home countries have made learning an arduous task and minimally satisfying. Additionally, the inability to be physically present interferes with international students accruing practicum hours to secure externships and internships. As such, international students may be severely hindered in their practical experiences and hour accumulation, ultimately being disfavored when applying for internships and externships.

Career Opportunities: Students in various stages of their program encounter unique situations posed by the syndemic. Those nearing the conclusion of their program (often in the phase of dissertation and/or internship completion) are having to make critical yet unfavorable choices about the future of their career. After having invested 5-6 years of their life in the U.S., often away from family and friends, these students are absolutely hopeless about securing further training positions in the U.S. The current hiring freeze has resulted in international students in psychology returning to their home countries in seek of job opportunities. Further, given the status of psychology in their countries and the students’ subspeciality, these positions may or may not be related to their educational background.

Financial Stability: The budgetary cuts to university grants resulting from the syndemic have directly impacted international students. As a population who by default experiences an array of severe restrictions to the type of work, hours of work, and types of funding they can receive before the syndemic, the budget cuts have threated their financial stability the most. Students are having to rely on family and personal funding to fuel the continuation of their graduate education and livelihoods. These personal funds have to amount to tens and thousands of dollars to meet the unjust semester course requirement and outrageous out-of-state tuition expenses.

Mental health and wellbeing: There is, by default, a natural burden to the one’s mental health and wellbeing that comes with being a foreign student. Having to leave family and friends and start an educational journey while also attempting to maintain academic tasks, obtain financial stability, adjust to the cultural differences, navigate the international paperwork and immigration updates, and find social support are just a few. Unfortunately, the syndemic only worsened the circumstances for this population, where students are unable to travel to visit their families or fear the return to the U.S. upon leaving. Additional stressors are related to the lack of support and direction international students are receiving from their programs, departments, and international offices on campus, often leaving students to advocate for themselves. Furthermore, the same time zone and physical presence restrictions that impact practicum work restrict the ability of international students to access campus resources, even when they are available. These times can be truly isolating.

International students are truly resilient, persistent, and fearless individuals (Lee, 2013) and under the toughest circumstances, they are also helpful to one another. However, this population is needing and deserving of more systemic and institutional regard to navigate these new regulations, now more than ever. By providing limited to no support or advocacy, governing bodies, programs, departments, and intuitions are neglecting and overlooking a population that significantly contributes to a portion of the cultural and ethnic diversity in the field of psychology.

References:
Institute of International Education. (2019). Open Doors 2019 infographics. Retrieved from http://opendoorsiie.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Open-Doors-Graphics-2019.pdf

Lee, K. C. (2013) Training and educating international students on professional psychology: What graduate programs should know. Training and Education in Professional Psychology, 7(1), 61-69. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0031186

CARED Perspectives: The Political Climate, Government Shutdown, and Unavoidable Dialogue in the Therapy Room

This blog post is a part of the series, “CARED Perspectives,” developed by the APAGS Committee for the Advancement of Racial and Ethnic Diversity (CARED). This series will discuss current events and how these events relate to graduate students in psychology. If you are interested in contributing to the CARED Perspectives series, please contact Aleesha Young, Chair of APAGS-CARED.

By: Aleesha Young

shutdownDecember 21, 2018 marked the longest federal government shutdown in United States (U.S.) history and was prompted by a political divide around the President’s demand to fund and build a wall along the U.S – Mexico Border. Notably, the border wall has been at the center of the President’s immigration policies and was imposed to prevent illegal entry into the U.S.  Thus, immigrants who were once protected from deportation, even DACA recipients, are faced with pervasive fear and uncertainty about their future and livelihoods. Consequently, these xenophobic government policies have a remarkable impact on individuals from marginalized groups.

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CARED Perspectives – Immigration at the Border: Separation of Children from Parents

This blog post is a part of the series, “CARED Perspectives,” developed by the APAGS Committee for the Advancement of Racial and Ethnic Diversity. Posts in this series will discuss current events and how these events relate to graduate students in psychology. If you are interested in contributing to the CARED Perspectives series, please contact Lincoln Hill. 

Immigration at the Border: Separation of Children from Parents

By Jhodi-Ann Bowie

black-and-white-blur-child-415229In recent weeks, the global community has been flooded with images and information related to the U.S. immigration policy that requires the separation of children from their parents/caregivers at the border. This issue has undoubtedly impacted not only those directly affected, but millions of others who are disheartened by these events. As racial/ethnic minority graduate students, we are also not immune to the personal and professional effects of these events. Many of us have experienced a variety of emotions associated with the stories of children being separated from their caregivers. These experiences most certainly impact our ability to go about our daily lives, but they can also impact our professional work.

Many of us conduct research on the effects of immigration on psychological well-being. Immigrants not only experience distress related to the hardship of being displaced from their homes, but they also experience a variety of challenges in their quest for asylum, and discrimination on many fronts while living in the US. These, and other challenges, have the potential to cause lasting mental health concerns. We can therefore anticipate that the impact of separating family members from one another is even more detrimental, particularly putting children at risk for psychological trauma.

Further, many of us work directly with these clients in our clinical practice settings. This and other issues related to social injustice particularly hit home and have a significant impact on psychology trainees, since we are often privy to our clients stories of their hardships in these experiences. Further, although many clients may not be directly impacted by these events, they may experience feelings of outrage and distress. Additionally, some of us may even identify as first, second, or third generation immigrants to the US and have personal and direct experiences with this issue.

The importance of these events inevitably blur the lines of personal and professional and highlight important considerations and questions for graduate trainees: How do I manage my feelings about current distressing events? Do I share these feelings in the clinical/work and academic space? Do I share my personal beliefs and feelings with clients? How can I advocate for these individuals from a professional standpoint?

These questions may be difficult for us to answer on our own. The role of supervisors, advisors, and professors therefore becomes paramount. Unfortunately, very few academic programs offer a safe platform for students to share their feelings and address the aforementioned questions. Additionally, students may be hesitant to request such a space for fear of seeming too politically driven/biased or unprofessional. But how can we be expected to keep such issues such completely compartmentalized from who we are and what we stand for? This plight remains ongoing since in this new age of social political polarization and social injustice, psychology professionals and graduate students must learn to navigate our own boundaries and responsibilities to the field.

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APAGS-CARED aims to provide students with a variety of platforms to discuss and benefit from resources related to this and other social justice issues. These resources include peer support groups, webinars for international students, twitter chats, disseminating information to academic programs, and other initiatives.

For more information on APAGS-CARED, as well as APA’s stance and actions related to the immigration policy, please visit the following resources:

We want to hear what you think! Please share your thoughts on this topic in the comments section below.

Other posts in the CARED PERSPECTIVES series:

 

 

Mental Health and Immigration Detention

berks-countyThis summer, I joined psychologists and lawyers from across the Midatlantic and New York to visit the Berks County Detention Center, in Pennsylvania.  Berks is one of 108 immigration detention centers around the country run by U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and it is home to 36 families, including children of as young as two years old, who are awaiting deportation from the U.S.  The purpose of our visit, which was arranged by Human Rights First, was to review conditions in the detention center; as a doctoral student in clinical psychology, my particular interest was in understanding the mental health needs of the detainees, and the availability of qualified mental health care in the Center.

Many studies and reports have demonstrated the impact of detention on mental health, and some of these impacts were clearly visible in talking to the families at Berks.

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