A recent article in Mission Local on federal immigration enforcement in San Francisco includes commentary from Assistant Professor Kristina Lovato.
The story reports on the detention and deportation of a San Francisco father and considers the implications of enforcement actions within a sanctuary-city context. Drawing on her research on immigration policy and child and family well-being, Lovato situates the case within a broader body of scholarship documenting the psychological, social, and economic effects of family separation. She notes that deportation-related disruptions are associated with elevated stress, anxiety, and instability for partners and children who remain in the United States.
The surge in deportations, especially of men, leaving women behind, is a ‘mass atrocity’ for Latino families. Depression and anxiety are common in these householdsm said Kristina Lovato, an assistant professor of social welfare at the University of California, Berkeley, and director of the Center on Immigration and Child Welfare.
"What’s surprising, said Lovato, the researcher, was the resilience of women left behind. Many are able to re-configure their entire family structure relatively quickly, and people come together — through extended family, churches, or other community groups — to support each other."Mission Local