Today’s immigration climate is growing increasingly restrictive. Threats to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), bans on refugees/asylees from specific countries, family separation at the border, and stricter federal immigration enforcement are among the many recent events that further marginalized the undocumented community.
Undocumented Asian Pacific Islander young adults can be isolated because of the stigma in their community and their small size, but social ties are important factors in their improving their mental health.”
– Annie Ro, PhD, Associate Professor of Health, Society, & Behavior
Asians and Pacific Islanders (APIs) make up approximately 14% of the U.S. undocumented population and 25% of the undocumented college student population, but their mental health remains largely understudied. In a recent study published in the online journal BMC Public Health, Associate Professor Annie Ro, PhD, corresponding author on the study, with the Department of Health, Society, and Behavior at the Program in Public Health, aimed to fill this knowledge gap by examining the association between social ties and depression among API undocumented young adults.
In this study, Ro et al. identify two important types of social ties: bonding and bridging social capital. “Bonding” refers to the social resources derived from members of a network with similar characteristics like class and race/ethnicity, while “bridging” social capital refers to the resources access across networks that cross class, race/ethnicity, or other social characteristics.
Along with her collaborators at UCLA and Harvard, Ro surveyed over 200 API undocumented young adults. They found that higher levels of bonding and bridging ties were associated with lower odds of a positive depression screen, while isolation was associated with higher odds of a positive depression screen. The importance of this study is two-fold: Results suggest that these types of social ties are important factors in the mental health of API undocumented young adults, but also underscore the importance of interventions like DACA in improving mental health within this population.
“Undocumented Asian Pacific Islander young adults can be isolated because of the stigma in their community and their small size, but social ties are important factors in their improving their mental health. We know that stronger ties can be facilitated by institutions like universities and policies like the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals,” Ro said.
