The Legal Aspects of Immigration

Summer 2005 ■ Volume 83 292 The U.S. Census Bureau reports that 10.4% of the U.S. population, or approximately 28 million individuals, are immigrants (Schmidley, 2001). Immigration is undoubtedly the strongest force that has shaped U.S. history, and current global changes account for unprecedented movements of individuals across the world in search of better life opportunities and conditions (Marsella & Ring, 2003). The amount of information on recent immigrants in psychological literature is sparse (Hovey, 2000; Pernice, 1994; Yoshihama & Horrucks, 2002), however, and there is even less information about the impact of immigration on women and their counseling needs and experiences (Hondagneu-Sotelo, 1999). A few researchers have examined immigrant women’s psychological distress (Rodriguez & DeWolfe, 1990), posttraumatic stress symptoms and victimization (Yoshihama & Horrucks, 2002), adaptation strategies (McIntyre & Augusto, 1999), and identity changes (Weeks, 2000). Cole, Espín, and Rothblum (1992) devoted a text to the mental health issues of refugee women. Books that address issues specific to Latina and Asian American women highlight difficulties faced by racial and ethnic minority immigrant women (Falicov, 1998; Uba, 1994). This research shows that immigrant women’s migration and acculturation experiences may threaten their physical, emotional, and mental health. As a result, counselors in the United States are challenged to learn about the mental health needs of immigrant women to support their successful transition in the U.S. Building on the existent literature, we first provide an overview of issues immigrant women face upon relocation to the U.S. Second, we use Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) ecological model to outline mental health concerns and experiences of oppression for immigrant women and to identify counseling strategies for working with this population. Throughout the article, we focus on the experiences of Mexican immigrant women because Mexicans constitute the largest group of new U.S. immigrants and make up 64% of the total U.S. Latino population (Guarnaccia, 1997; Montgomery, 1994). The Legal Aspects of Immigration