Fear Factors and Their Effects on Child Protection Practice With Undocumented Immigrant Families—“A Lot of My Families Are Scared and Won't Reach Out”

Abstract

This study analyzes child protection workers' perceptions of the causes of immigrant families' fears of child protection systems (CPS) and the effects of these fears on child protection practice based on 24 qualitative interviews conducted with child protection caseworkers in the Northeastern United States. Workers reported three major fear factors among immigrant families: fear of CPS involvement leading to detention and deportation, fear of child removal, and fear of CPS as a potentially repressive government entity. Workers experienced these fears as barriers to rapport-building and led to service initiation and access barriers.

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