Immigrant Caregiver Perspectives on Service Needs for Young Families in the New Mexico Borderlands: A Community-Based Participatory Study

Background: In recent years, the federal and state immigration policy landscapes have become increasingly punitive toward immigrant communities. Despite some positive changes to immigration policy during the Biden administration, a “chilling effect” continues to impact immigrants who remain hesitant to access essential social services for which they qualify. For immigrant families with young children, these critical services include child care, early intervention, health care, among other public benefits. For immigrant families in the U.S.-Mexico border region, this fear of accessing services is amplified by the reality of living in a region pervaded by an environment of militarized immigration enforcement. This study sought to understand the experiences of service access and receipt for immigrant families with young children (IFYC) in the New Mexico borderlands by answering the following research questions: 1) what are the service needs of IFYC in the NM borderlands?; 2) what barriers and facilitators do IFYC encounter when trying to access these services?; 3) How might service access for IFYC be improved in this community context?

Methods: This study employed a community-based participatory approach to explore the service needs of IFYC. 5 focus groups were conducted by bilingual, bicultural interviewers with 36 immigrant caregivers of at least one child aged 8 or younger between November 2022-March 2023. Researchers asked questions about caregivers’ perceptions of the greatest needs of immigrant families, their level of comfort and any barriers to receiving services in the community, the public charge rule and its impact on service seeking decisions, and what could help improve service access for immigrants. Data was analyzed using a thematic analysis approach, in which two researchers independently coded transcripts using Dedoose qualitative data analysis software.

Results: Immigrant caregivers discussed lack of service options and information about available services for their children, and fear, discrimination, cost, language barriers, eligibility issues, public charge, and transportation as factors that influence their parenting experiences in the NM borderlands, specifically around their ability to access needed resources for their families. Caregivers also provided their perspectives on potential community-driven solutions to improve service access for their children and families, that include the concept of a one-stop shop for services and investment in language access services.

Conclusions and Implications: Findings identified a need to build community capacity among government-based and private/ nonprofit providers to address the complex needs of IFYC. Organizations and practitioners may benefit from specialized training on immigrant-focused trauma-informed and culturally sensitive policy and practice approaches to increasing immigrant inclusion and equity in service provision. In particular, implementing an immigrant specialist parent navigator model shows unique promise for engaging and supporting IFYC in navigating complex social service systems.