Effects of Immigration on Children's Health and Wellbeing

Seminar paper from the year 2018 in the subject Sociology - Children and Youth, grade: 1, Egerton University, language: English, abstract: Immigration has emerged as a serious social issue in different regions of the world. For instance, immigration into the US has raised immense concerns due to the threat of terrorism. This has led to policy responses that aim at enhancing homeland security. On the other hand, immigration comes with its share of economic implications, racial discrimination, and juvenile delinquencies. Of great concern are the effects of immigration on children. Children are considered to be prone to the negative consequences arising from immigration, which is attributable to their dependency nature and challenges in adapting to family dynamics, especially in diverse cultural settings. It is implicit that immigration has taken diverse trends, which are not consistent with the traditional social theories such as the straight-line assimilation. As such, there is need to investigate this aspect from an advanced perspective. Evidence indicates that one in every five children in the US is either a second-generation immigrant or an immigrant child. This paper offers a comprehensive analysis of the effects of immigration on children.