Trauma and Racial Minority Immigrants

For racial minority immigrants in the United States, trauma can have both historical and ongoing sources. Today’s immigrants face a dangerous mix of rising nationalism and xenophobia, alarming rates of displacement within and across nations, war, trafficking, terrorism, and deportation. Multiple traumas stem from these experiences and can be exacerbated by interpersonal violence and other forms of marginalization within communities.

This book examines the lasting impact of trauma for racial minority immigrants and subsequent generations. Each chapter explores both the stress and resilience of immigrant groups in the United States, as well as clinical or community-based efforts to address the multiple traumas that affect immigrants and their children.

While considering the socioecological contexts of immigrants, the chapters reflect a diversity of theoretical perspectives needed to expand existing treatments for trauma, such as multicultural, feminist, womanist, psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral, and humanistic theories.

In the nuanced pages of this book, you will deepen your understanding of the immigrant experience and develop professional skills to help heal traumatic stress faced by racial minority immigrants.

Introduction: Challenges Facing Racial Minority Immigrants
Pratyusha Tummala-Narra

Part I. Context of Xenophobia and Racism in the United States

1. Wounds that Never Heal: The Proliferation of Prejudice Toward Immigrants in the United States
   Angel D. Armenta, Miriam J. Alvarez, & Michael A. Zárate
2. Multifaceted Profiling and Violence: Experiences of Mexican and Central American Migrants to the United States
   Hannah W. McDermott & Ricardo C. Ainslie
3. Xenophobia and Racism: Immigrant Youth Experiences, Stress, and Resilience
   Amy K. Marks, G. Alice Woolverton, & Marit D. Murry
4. Racism and Xenophobia on College Campuses
   Anmol Satiani & Sindhu Singh
5. Microaggressions Toward Racial Minority Immigrants in the United States
   D. R. Gina Sissoko & Kevin Nadal  

Part II. Specific Forms of Trauma in Immigrant Communities

6. “Forever Foreigners”: Intergenerational Impacts of Historical Trauma from the World War II Japanese American Incarceration
   Donna K. Nagata & Reeya Patel
7. Sociopolitical Trauma: Ethnicity, Race, and Migration
   Lillian Comas-Díaz
8. Racial Stress and Racialized Violence Among Black Immigrants in the United States
   Marisol L. Meyer, Monique C. McKenny, Esprene Liddell-Quintyn, Guerda Nicolas, & Gemima St. Louis
9. An Examination of Racial Minority Immigrants and the Trauma of Human Trafficking
   Indhushree Rajan & Thema Bryant-Davis
10. The Rippling Effects of Unauthorized Status: Stress, Family Separations, and Deportation and Their Implications for Belonging and Development
    Carola Suárez-Orozco, Guadalupe López Hernández, & Patricia Cabral
11. Interpersonal Violence and the Immigrant Context
    Pratyusha Tummala-Narra

Part III. Resilience and Identity

12. Coping with Trauma: Resilience Among Immigrants of Color in the United States
    Germine H. Awad, Flor Castellanos, Jendayi Dillard, & Taylor Payne
13. Resilience and Identity: Intersectional Migration Experiences of LGBTQ People of Color
    Matthew D. Skinta & Nadine Nakamura 

Part IV. Key Strategies for Intervention

14. Bullying Prevention for Asian American Families: Collaborations With School Districts and Community Organizations
    Cixin Wang, Jia Li Liu, Kavita Atwal, & Kieu Anh Do 
15. Toward a Liberatory Practice: Shifting the Ideological Premise of Trauma Work with Immigrants
    Lara Sheehi & Leilani Salvo Crane
16. Human Rights, Policy, and Legal Interventions
    Diya Kallivayalil & Robert P. Marlin

Afterword: Looking to the Future
Pratyusha Tummala-Narra

Pratyusha Tummala-Narra, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Counseling, Developmental and Educational Psychology at Boston College. She is also in independent practice in Cambridge, MA. Her scholarship focuses on immigration, trauma, and cultural competence and psychoanalytic psychotherapy.

She has served as the chair of the Multicultural Concerns Committee and as member-at-large in APA Division 39 (Psychoanalysis), and as a member of the APA Committee on Ethnic Minority Affairs, the APA Presidential Task Force on Immigration, and the APA Task Force on Revising the Multicultural Guidelines.

She is author of Psychoanalytic Theory and Cultural Competence in Psychotherapy.