Training Title:
Cultural Competence: The Immigrant Experience, The Legal Hoops of Immigration

Clock Hours: 1

Objectives:
After listening to and/or reading this interview, participants should be able to • Identify some of America’s many broad immigration tracks and categories. • Describe the benefits and limitations of possessing a green card. • Recognize the role of the mental health professional in the immigration legal system.

Description:
The domain of clinical practice currently faces a crisis of competence and conscience in the treatment of those clients whose ethnicity, race, or class renders them minority groups in American society. Even with the best of intentions and belief in our own objectivity/impartiality, we unwittingly, even unconsciously impose presumptuous interpretations and interventions on clients’ lives. So, we shouldn’t be shocked to learn that ethnic minority groups are the smallest users of mental health services. Furthermore, when these groups do use treatment, they show the highest premature termination rate of any social group. Something is wrong here! Our clinical training programs need to step up to this challenge. Family reunification has stood as a central pillar of the US Immigration system. However, immigration laws have implications that go well beyond actual admissions. These laws not only determine who is allowed to immigrate and through which channels, but they also shape the composition of immigrant families and, by doing so, they affect immigrant households’ economic opportunities and their ability to integrate into American society. In principle, our immigration law recognizes the right of US citizens and lawful permanent residents to be reunited with close family members born abroad. However, a closer look at the actual impact of current immigration laws on families reveals that many legal provisions of the laws threaten this reunification. Here to give us an overview on the complexities of our immigration system and the concomitant emotional repercussions of these laws is attorney Kenneth Geman.

Approval Bodies