Date: January 24, 2006
Contact: Public Affairs Office
(202) 336-5700

For Immediate Release

American Psychological Association to Host Expert Summit on Immigration Issues

San Antonio summit will look at dynamics of immigration and multiculturalism and at improving the lives of all immigrants

Washington, DC– According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 12% of the total U.S. population is people born in countries other than the United States. Psychologists and other social scientists have been at the forefront of studying the effects of immigrant status on these foreign-born Americans and in designing programs to help communities better accommodate the needs of immigrants and their families.

Such programs will be the highlight of an American Psychological Association- sponsored summit to be held at the St. Anthony Hotel, 300 East Travis Street, San Antonio on Thursday, February 2.

"Successive generations of Americans too quickly forget our history as a nation of immigrants," says APA President, Dr. Gerald P. Koocher. "Today we stand better prepared than ever before to welcome new arrivals and help them to live their American dreams, but there is much more work to be done. This summit will showcase the work of the behavioral scientists and practitioners which measures the impact of immigrant status and the services needed to help immigrants."

The expert summit will include nine sessions on the effects of immigrant status on individual and family health and adjustment including that of children and adolescents. Also discussed will be the effects immigrants have on their newly adopted communities and how immigration continues to transform America. Also on the summit agenda will be the degree to which American communities provide the resources and services immigrant families need.

The Summit’s three keynote speakers will be:

Dr. Donald J. Hernandez, professor of Sociology at the University of Albany (SUNY) will present Immigration and Diversity: Transforming America in the 21st Century.

Psychologist and best selling author Dr. Mary Pipher will describe her experiences working with refugees in her home state of Nebraska and work that led to her book The Middle of Everywhere: The World’s Refugees Come to Our Town.

Dr. Carola Suarez-Orozco, co-director of Immigration Studies at New York University and coeditor of the award-winning six-volume series Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the New Immigration, will speak on the topic of the family dynamics of immigration.

"The Summit will focus on the dominant cultural and familial values that shape the lives of immigrants, their experiences of acculturation and acculturative stress," says Dr. Cynthia de las Fuentes, a Summit Co-chair and professor at Our Lady of the Lake University. "In Texas 14% of the state’s population is foreign born Latino. To ensure the competent delivery of health services in the state, health care providers need to know how symptom presentation and treatment are influenced by the patient’s unique heritage and experiences."

The Summit is open to all interested parties and continuing education credit is available. For more information about attending go to http://www.reisman-white.com and click on conference registrations.

NOTE TO CORRESPONDENTS:

APA President, Dr. Gerald Koocher, is available for interviews before or during the Summit.

Conference chairs—Dr. Toy Caldwell-Colbert, Howard University, Washington, DC, and Dr. Cynthia de las Fuentes, Our Lady of the Lake University, San Antonio—are available for interviews before or during the Summit.

Contact the APA Public Affairs office at (202) 336-5700 for information.

The American Psychological Association (APA), in Washington, DC, is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States and is the world's largest association of psychologists. APA's membership includes more than 150,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 53 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 60 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance psychology as a science, as a profession and as a means of promoting human welfare.

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