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. 2022 Apr;9(2):478-488.
doi: 10.1007/s40615-021-00978-w. Epub 2021 Feb 8.

Federal, State, and Local Immigrant-Related Policies and Child Health Outcomes: a Systematic Review

Danielle M Crookes  1 , Kaitlyn K Stanhope  2 , Ye Ji Kim  3 , Elizabeth Lummus  4 , Shakira F Suglia  3
Affiliations

Federal, State, and Local Immigrant-Related Policies and Child Health Outcomes: a Systematic Review

Danielle M Crookes et al. J Racial Ethn Health Disparities. 2022 Apr.

Abstract

The passage of US immigrant-related policies at the federal, state, and local level is on the rise. These policies may affect child health through several mechanisms. We performed a systematic review of English-language, peer-reviewed, quantitative studies examining US immigrant-related policies and the mental and physical health of youth in immigrant families. We searched PubMed and five social science databases for studies published between 1986 and 2019. Two independent reviewers screened the studies and appraised study quality. Of the final 17 studies, ten studies examined birth outcomes and seven studies examined other outcomes in childhood and adolescence (e.g., self-rated health). Generally, exclusionary policies were associated with worse health outcomes and inclusive policies were associated with better health outcomes. Several studies did not observe an association, but only one study found an association of the opposite direction. In that study, similar trends in different policy environments and across foreign-born and US-born women suggest alternative causes for the observed association. Overall, we find that exclusionary policies are, at best, neutral, but likely harmful towards child wellbeing, while inclusive policies can be beneficial.

Keywords: Children; Health; Immigrants; Mental health; Policy.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
PRISMA flow diagram of the systematic review examining the association between immigrant-related policies in the US and health outcomes of children in immigrant families
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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