Immigrant Women and Counseling: The Invisible Others

The U.S. Census Bureau reports that 10.4% of the U.S. population, or approximately 28 million individuals, are immigrants (Schmidley, 2001). Immigration is undoubtedly the strongest force that has shaped U.S. history, and current global changes account for unprecedented movements of individuals across the world in search of better life opportunities and conditions (Marsella & Ring, 2003). The amount of information on recent immigrants in psychological literature is sparse (Hovey, 2000; Pernice, 1994; Yoshihama & Horrucks, 2002), however, and there is even less information about the impact of immigration on women and their counseling needs and experiences (Hondagneu-Sotelo, 1999). A few researchers have examined immigrant women's psychological distress (Rodriguez & DeWolfe, 1990), post-traumatic stress symptoms and victimization (Yoshihama & Horrucks, 2002), adaptation strategies (McIntyre & Augusto, 1999), and identity changes (Weeks, 2000). Cole, Espin, and Rothblum (1992) devoted a text to the mental health issues of refugee women. Books that address issues specific to Latina and Asian American women highlight difficulties faced by racial and ethnic minority immigrant women (Falicov, 1998; Uba, 1994). This research shows that immigrant women's migration and acculturation experiences may threaten their physical, emotional, and mental health. As a result, counselors in the United States are challenged to learn about the mental health needs of immigrant women to support their successful transition in the U.S. Building on the existent literature, we first provide an overview of issues immigrant women face upon relocation to the U.S. Second, we use Bronfenbrenner's (1979) ecological model to outline mental health concerns and experiences of oppression for immigrant women and to identify counseling strategies for working with this population. Throughout the article, we focus on the experiences of Mexican immigrant women because Mexicans constitute the largest group of new U.S. immigrants and make up 64% of the total U.S. Latino population (Guarnaccia, 1997; Montgomery, 1994). The Legal Aspects of Immigration Immigration constitutes a wide array of relocation circumstances, which have a strong bearing on women's experiences in their host environments. The three broad categories of relocation that are officially recognized in the U.S. are (a) legal immigration, (b) refugee relocation, and (c) undocumented or "illegal" immigration. Legal immigration refers to relocation of noncitizens who are granted legal permanent residence by the U.S. federal government. Legal permanent residence provides the fight to remain in the country indefinitely, to be gainfully employed, and to seek benefits of U.S. citizenship through naturalization (Mulder et al., 2001). This status does not give the fight to vote or receive benefits, such as many federal subsidies reserved for U.S. citizens. A different type of immigration status is granted to individuals who are considered refugees. Refugees are defined by the 1967 United Nations Protocol on Refugees as those people outside their country of nationality who are unable or unwilling to return to that country because of persecution or well-founded fear of persecution (Mulder et al., 2001). The third category of U.S. immigrants represents individuals who seek to relocate to the U.S. in search of employment and better living conditions. Often referred to as the "illegal" or "undocumented" population, the unauthorized migrant population consists primarily of two groups: (a) those who enter the U.S. without inspection and (b) those who enter the U.S. with legal temporary visas but stay beyond the time allotment of their visas (Mulder et al., 2001). The U.S. Census Bureau (Mulder et al., 2001) estimates that approximately 5 to 8 million individuals remain in the U.S. without legal documents, with Mexicans constituting 95% of undocumented immigrants who are detained in the U. …