Unaccompanied Immigrant Youth: Needs and Utilization of Community Services Among Uac

Background and Purpose: Unaccompanied immigrant youth, or “Unaccompanied Alien Children” (UAC’s) enter the U.S. daily to escape violence, oppression, poverty, and instability in their native countries, or as victims of human trafficking. U.S. authorities place UAC’s in shelter care until a sponsor/caregiver is identified. The Office of Refugee Resettlement contracts with Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services Children's Services (LIRS) to provide in-shelter and follow-up services to UAC’s. These follow-up services include referrals for legal assistance, mental health and substance abuse treatment, educational programs, and medical care. 

Although these services are considered crucial to UAC’s integration into the community, only 5-10% of youth released from shelters receive such services. Other ‘lower risk’ youth are reunified without support after release.  Anecdotal evidence suggests that these youth suffer similar difficulties as their higher risk peers who receive services and that family breakdown and crises often emerge after the initial six months of reunification. The research reported in this paper sought to assess the specific needs of children released from shelter care with no follow-up services. 

Methods: The initial sample included 100 sponsors of UAC’s released from LIRS-affiliate shelters without follow-up services. All of the youth in the sample were Latin American, and 86% were under 14. Because a high percentage were under 14, an additional sample of 100 included only sponsors of youth over 14 years old. Those sponsors who agreed to participate were contacted at 14 days, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months post-shelter release. At each interval, a researcher gathered data recording the family’s to access and use community services.

Results: Preliminary data indicate that families are accessing and utilizing community-based services independently. Among the initial sample, at six months, 100% of UAC’s still lived with their intended sponsor; 98% were enrolled in school; and 61% had accessed medical care.  However, sponsors were unable to resolve certain problems on their own, the most common of which was understanding legal processes and accessing legal assistance. By six months, only 28% of respondents in the initial sample had obtained legal aid.   At 14 days, only 45% of respondents in the initial sample had accessed the Executive Office for Immigration Review hotline to gather case status information.  After being contacted by the researchers, 93% of respondents in the initial sample had done so by the six month interval.  Preliminary data analysis of the older sample point to group differences, such as lower school enrollment, and less stable living situations.

Conclusions and Implications: The research process served as an unintended intervention by identifying the lack of awareness of available services and service utilization among sponsors.  The telephone interviews found that while families could initiate the process of integration, they still needed follow-up services, tailored to different age groups. Findings from the study underscore the importance of integrating research with locally-based service interventions and outreach in order to enhance the existing capacities of UAC sponsors and develop a more precise picture of the strengths and needs of this population.