Page 32 - IJPS-8-2

International Journal of
Population Studies URM Education, Economic, and Social Outcomes

from the child welfare system and the refugee resettlement 2017), and employment outcomes have been assessed
programs and accepts qualified immigrant and refugee for youth from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador
children who lack parents or caregivers at time of entry to (Hasson 3 et al., 2021). However, the experiences in home
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the U.S. The goal of the foster care program is to be culturally country, migration journey, benefits available on arrival
competent, offering cultural and religious community to the US, and discriminations faced in the US are vastly
linkages to meet unaccompanied children’s unique needs different for youth who enters as refugees as compared to
(United States Conference of Catholic Bishops [USCCB], those who enter as undocumented immigrants through
2013). To accomplish this, each URM program provides the South US border. Therefore, this study is looking at
specialized training to foster parents and staff to help build education, employment, and social ties (dimensions known
a supportive environment for the children (USCCB, 2013). to be important in terms of immigrant integration) for
The URM program works to advance social justice through refugee youth from Myanmar, the Democratic Republic
the view that “everyone deserves equal economic, political, of the Congo, Eritrea, and Somalia as there are little
and social rights and opportunities” (National Association quantitative data on these youth and they are some of the
of Social Workers [NASW], 2017, paragraph 2) and is other refugee countries that are well represented in the
designed to provide opportunities to refugee youth that dataset. The literature noted above that compares youth
is equal to those of U.S. born youth served through foster from different Central American countries has been utilized
care (USCCB, 2013). by social service providers in helping to tailor case plans
and make inferences about what services may be more or
1.1. Study justification and literature review less beneficial to different youth. Therefore, we propose a
The well-being of refugee children in their host countries is similar methodology and compare outcomes across the
important to protect their human rights and advance their largest groups of refugees in the URM program.
ability to participate in society. Unfortunately, there is little According to Calvo et al. (2016), integration consists
research on the outcomes of refugee children, especially of three interrelated dimensions: Social, economic,
those served specifically by the URM program. Luster and political. Therefore, this study aims to examine
et al. (2009) found that Sudanese youth served by the the indicators of social and economic participation, as
URM program struggled to adjust as foster parents wanted there was no measure of political involvement in the
to have authority over the teenagers and they were used to administrative dataset. Others authors support the value
living on their own in groups, and that misunderstandings of social connections in the lives of immigrants and show
around cultural traditions only created deeper conflict and that it can lead to better mental health and well-being (Ager
struggles in communication. A study by Socha et al. (2016) & Strang, 2008; Elsayed et al., 2019; Revens et al., 2021;
found that Eritrean youth had vastly different expectations Puyat, 2013) and ease the transition to a new environment
before arrival as compared to what they found when they (Bankston CL 3 , 2014). We suggest that education is one
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entered the foster care program, leading to discontent with aspect of social participation in line with Calvo et al. theory
the program initially and distrust in their social networks above. The literature widely supports the importance of
that had fueled initial expectations of resettlement. education in terms of immigrant integration (Ager & Strang,
Evans et al. (2021) looked at youth (both immigrant and 2008; Coomans, 2018; Naidoo, 2009). Similarly, a wide body
refugee) served by the US URM program to assess factors of research supports the value that employment plays in
that influence self-sufficiency on discharge. They found integration and community involvement for refugees (Ager
that employment, English proficiency, and educational & Strang, 2008; Capps et al., 2015; Hasson 3 et al., 2021;
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attainment all had significant relationships with self- Mirembe et al., 2019; National Academies of Sciences et al.,
sufficiency (Evans et al., 2021). Due to the dearth of 2015). Self-sufficiency is a common metric used by the Office
literature out of the United States, at times, researchers and of Resettlement to measure the success of refugees in the
service providers rely on research about the integration US (Halpern, 2008). Self-sufficiency goes beyond holding a
of refugee children in other countries such as Sweden job and Halpern (2008) noted that some of the challenges
(Wimelius et al., 2017), Canada (Baffoe, 2011), Ireland to self-sufficiency include lack of resources, transportation,
(Horgan & Ni Raghallaigh, 2019), and Britain and Europe and language barriers.
(Bell, 2005).
1.2. Research questions
When looking at youth served by the URM program at
large, there is also research into the outcomes that focuses This study is guided by three research questions, focusing
specifically on youth from Central America. For example, on the differences in county of origin for youth served
youth’s educational outcomes have been assessed for youth through the URM program. They are as follows: RQ1: What
from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador (Crea et al., are the levels of educational attainment for youth from the

Volume 8 Issue 2 (2022) 26 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.v8i2.304