Suchergebnisse

A growing number of people& dash;immigrants, refugees, asylum-seekers, displaced individuals and families& mdash;lead lives that transcend national boundaries. Often because of economic pressures, these individuals move continually among places, countries, or cultures, never residing in one residence long enough to establish healthy and stable ties. Though migration itself has existed for centuries, today's sophisticated technologies and electronic communications, as well as the availability of fast and cheap transportation, enable transmigrants to develop transnational identities and relationships and engage in transnational activities. Yet despite the transnational nature of these lives, social work lacks a transnational social work practice. In this innovative and pioneering volume, practitioners and scholars specializing in transnational issues develop a framework for transnational social work practice. They begin with the historical and environmental context of transnational practice, exploring the economic, ecological, and additional factors that affect at-risk and vulnerable transnational groups. They then detail practical strategies, supplemented with case examples, for working with transnational populations, concluding with ways to incorporate transnational social work into the curriculum.

Objective: This study examines the factor structure of the Brief Symptom Inventory-18 (BSI-18; Derogatis, 2001) in a hard-to-reach population of mainly undocumented migrant Latino day laborers. While, the BSI-18 has been found to be a valid and reliable measure of psychological distress, cross-cultural assessments in sub-groups of Latinos are scarce withthis being the first study to examine the factor structure of the Spanish version of the BSI-18 with this population. Methods: A series of principal axis exploratory factor analytic procedures examining one to three-factor models were performed with a street recruited sample of 150 Latino migrant day laborers. Results: A one-factor model emerged and four items were dropped due to low factor loadings. The internal consistency coefficients for the 14-item BSI was α = .87. Conclusions: Findings suggest that the revised BSI-18 appears to measure a single dimension of general somatic-psychological distress in this sample of Latinos.

This qualitative study explores the lived experience of self-identified
Mexican men as fathers. The sample consists of 47 biological fathers of children
residing in Denver, Colorado, all whom are participating in the Early Head Start
Research and Evaluation Project. The data suggests that these fathers engaged in
traditionally conceptualized fathering roles. These men expressed the importance of
being there, teaching, meeting the child's needs, being a role model, offering emotional support, and giving affection and love. The fathers reported taking more
responsibility, decreasing substance use, and limiting their leisure activities as a
result of becoming a parent. The results suggest that, fathering in and of itself, may
create resiliency and may have powerful positive influences on the lives of fathers.

This article presents an exploration of undocumented, Latino male immigrants in the United States, and assesses the impact of new state policies and their implications for social work practice. To meet its aims, we describe the psychosocial risks that they face, and situated these risks within the context of new state policy realities. Implications for practice are presented.

Latino migrant day laborers are a transnational population that often travels back and forth between borders in search of economic opportunities. These Latino day laborers (LDLs) are often at risk for exploitation and worker's rights abuses. Despite LDLs' heightened social vulnerability and risks, this population often does not access formal social or public health services due to their undocumented legal status, lack of health insurance and distrust of governmental social services. In light of LDLs' lack of access to formal services, social networks may enhance and protect their well-being and health through the exchange of emotional and social support, as well as the provision of concrete and practical services. Utilizing Berkman, Glass, Brissette, and Seeman's (2000) conceptual framework on social networks and health, this ethnographic study investigates the role of social networks in facilitating the well-being of LDLs (N=150). Implications for social services for this transnational population are also discussed.