Social Service Providers Serving Immigrant Youth and Families during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Analysis

Background and Purpose: As the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting social distancing guidelines forced social service providers and schools to rapidly transition to virtual platforms, job loss and spread of COVID-19 disproportionately affected Latinx immigrants. However, little is known regarding the issues experienced by Latinx students as well as how social service providers navigated continuity of care for this vulnerable population during a public health crisis. This study explores the first-hand experiences of social service providers working with Latinx immigrant youth and families during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: This study utilized survey data collected April 2020 through October 2020 as part of a larger study on the experiences of social service providers working with Latinx immigrants in the Maryland- Washington DC region during the COVID-19 pandemic. Online survey questions related to demographic and organizational characteristics, experiences providing services during the pandemic, psychological distress (Kessler-6), and qualitative open-ended questions were included. Eligible participants included those who identified working with Latinx immigrants (N=100). Only those working at organizations serving Latinx immigrant youth and families were included in the current mixed-methods analysis (n=33). Narrative data was analyzed using a thematic approach and guided by the Structural Environmental Framework for Social Services to elucidate factors related to the first-hand experiences of social service providers, including: the new immigrant settlement context of the region (limited availability of social services for English Learners (EL)), socio-environmental barriers (workforce and organizational), and experiences with clients (lack of access to remote technology and internet, food insecurity, increased family responsibility for youth).

Results: The majority of participants identified as Latinx (53.3%) and female (93.9%) with an average of 9.7 years working with Latinx immigrants. Participants indicated that their clients were mostly undocumented and unaccompanied youth from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala. Two-thirds of participants indicated their Latinx immigrant clients’ needs changed to a “great extent” during the pandemic, further reporting that youth experienced increased family economic and food insecurity, increased household responsibilities (i.e. caring for siblings, having to work), language barriers, and limited access to internet or technological devices appropriate for accessing online education. Despite such rising needs for social services, approximately 42% of participants indicated their organizations either “never” or only “some of the time” had enough direct service providers to meet the needs of their EL clients. Further, organizational and workforce factors constrained providers’ ability to meet their clients’ needs. As one provider noted, “It is difficult to know that so many families are facing unprecedented complications and there are limited resources to refer them to.”

Conclusions and Implications: Through the first-hand experiences of social service providers who worked with undocumented immigrant youth during the pandemic, findings have the potential to inform social change efforts to strengthen the social-safety net for a highly vulnerable youth population. Specifically, findings elucidate critical macro, mezzo, and micro intervention points that can be used in the development of school and community-based programming and policy to help minimize the exacerbation of health disparities.