User:Aleong809/Refugee children

I am revising the Wikipedia article currently named “Mental health of refugee children.” The article, in which I plan to address the topic of refugee children from a multifaceted, holistic standpoint (as opposed to just the mental health of refugee children), will be renamed to “Refugee children.” This user sandbox of "Refugee children" includes an outline of my plan for this updated/new page:

Each of my planned sections (and the work associated with them) are included below. The outline will be updated frequently with additional references.

1. Key Terms

Here, I will provide terms often mentioned during discussions of refugees and refugee children. In particular, I will define the following terms, specifically in relation to children: migrants, refugees, internally displaced persons, and asylum-seeking children (unaccompanied and accompanied).

References for this section:

Emily Garin, Jan Beise, Lucia Hug, and Danzhen You. “Uprooted: The Growing Crisis for Refugee and Migrant Children.” United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, September 2016. https://www.unicef.org/videoaudio/PDFs/Uprooted.pdf.

This source provides one of the most recent statistics (2015) on refugee children, and it also provides operational definitions of those statistics, specifying who qualifies as a “refugee.” It not only provides the global figures of refugee and migrant children trends, but it also provides specific regional features.

Guy S. Goodwin-Gill & Jane McAdam, The Refugee in International Law, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 3rd edn., 2007.

This source defines refugees from multiple perspectives; for instance, it provides information on how refugees are defined in international instruments, for the purposes of general international law, under the United Nations, and by different regions.

2. Refugee Children and the Rights of the Child

The international community has adopted two treaties—the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the Convention on the Rights of the Child—that respond to the difficulties caused by involuntary alienage, as well as to the special care and assistance required by children. I will use this section to discuss refugee children and their international rights in relation to these two treaties.

References for this section:

United Nations. High Commissioner for Refugees. Handbook on Procedures and Criteria for Determining Refugee Status under the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees. UNHCR, 1979.

This source discusses the ways in which the 1951 Refugee Convention and the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees set standards that apply to refugee children in the same way as to refugee adults. Article 22 in the Convention also set standards such that refugee children receive the same treatment as nationals in primary education, and treatment at least as favorable as that given to non-refugee aliens in secondary education.

Pobjoy, Jason M. "A child rights framework for assessing the status of refugee children." (2013).

This article lists ways in which the Convention on the Rights of the Child may be relevant when considering the status of a refugee children. More specifically, it discusses how the Convention may provide procedural guarantees not otherwise provided under international refugee law. It may also be used as an interpretive aid to inform the interpretation of the Refugee Convention.

3. Legal Status

Each region defines the legal status of refugees and unaccompanied children differently, but I found the below references to be the most comprehensive and informative. I will discuss about refugee status determination, nationality, and unaccompanied children in this section.

References for this section:

“Procedural Standards for Refugee Status Determination under UNHCR’s Mandate.” United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, September 1, 2005. http://www.unhcr.org/4317223c9.pdf.

This report discusses the procedures the UNHCR uses to determine eligibility for mandate refugee status. I plan on using this source to provide specific information about the UNHCR's process of determining refugee status.

“The Right to a Nationality of Refugee Children Born in the EU and the Relevance of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.” European Council on Refugees and Exiles, February 2017. https://www.ecre.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/refugee-children-nationality-LEAP-leaflet.pdf.

This source provides information about how the nationality of refugee children born within the European Union is determined. This offers another perspective to the legal status of refugee children around the world.

Daniel Senovilla, and Philippe Lagrange. “The Legal Status of Unaccompanied Children Within International, European and National Frameworks.” February 2017. https://calenda.org/217903?file=1.

The status of unaccompanied minors is not the same across different regions of the world. This source defines the status of unaccompanied minors within several legislative frameworks. This source will be particularly useful in providing a broader approach that extends beyond North America/Europe.

Bhabha, Jacqueline, and Susan Schmidt. "Seeking asylum alone: Unaccompanied and separated children and refugee protection in the US." The Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth 1, no. 1 (2008): 126-138.

This source focuses specifically on unaccompanied and separated minors in the United States. Once again, this will offer another perspective on the legal status of unaccompanied refugee children.

4. Stages of Migration

I take this section to distinguish between the experiences of refugee children in different stages of migration. This section will include information about the challenges and risk factors associated with each migratory stage.

4.1 Pre-migration experiences

References for this subsection:

Meda, Lawrence. Refugee Learner Experiences. A Case Study of Zimbabwean Refugee Children. Anchor Academic Publishing, 2017.

This source provides a comprehensive meta-analysis of the different stages of migration that refugee children in different parts of the world experience. Meda defines pre-migration experiences as experiences in the home country that refugee children undergo prior to being forced to leave. This can include challenges and threats children face that push them to seek refuge in another country.

Sidhu, Ravinder, Sandra Taylor, and Pam Christie. "Schooling and Refugees: engaging with the complex trajectories of globalisation." Global Studies of Childhood 1, no. 2 (2011): 92-103.

Sidhu, Taylor, and Christie suggest that some refugee children may be exposed to experiences such as imprisonment, torture, witnessing murder, child soldier activity, and loss of family members through violence in their home countries.

Couch, Jen. "A new way home: Refugee young people and homelessness in Australia." Journal of Social Inclusion 2, no. 1 (2011): 39-52.

Couch additionally asserts that some young refugees have experienced sexual and physical assault and the deprivation of human rights prior to leaving their home countries.

Craig, Tom. "Mental distress and psychological interventions in refugee populations." Mental health of refugees and asylum seekers (2010): 9-22.

Other refugee children have witnessed a mother or sister raped and have become victims of rape in their home countries.

Schininà, Guglielmo, Sonali Sharma, Olga Gorbacheva, and Anit Kumar Mishra. "Who am I? Assessment of Psychosocial needs and suicide risk factors among Bhutanese refugees in Nepal and after the third country resettlement." International Organization for Migration (IOM) (2011).

Schininà, Sharma, Gorbacheva, and Mishra assert that several risk factors, such as direct or witnessed experiences of violence and sexual abuse, may characterize refugee children's pre-migration experience.

4.2 Transition experiences

References for this subsection:

Meda, Lawrence. Refugee Learner Experiences. A Case Study of Zimbabwean Refugee Children. Anchor Academic Publishing, 2017.

The transition phase, according to Meda, includes experiences that occurred in the transition from home to host country.

Kaplan, Ida. "Effects of trauma and the refugee experience on psychological assessment processes and interpretation." Australian Psychologist 44, no. 1 (2009): 6-15.

Kaplan, providing useful information on the experiences of refugee children during this transitional migratory period, notes that children may experience dangerous journeys, arrest, detention, sexual assault, and torture during their journeys to the host country.

Kira, Ibrahim A., Iris Smith, Linda Lewandowski, and Thomas Templin. "The effects of gender discrimination on refugee torture survivors: A cross-cultural traumatology perspective." Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association 16, no. 5 (2010): 299-306.

Kira, Smith, Lewandowski, and Templin asserted that the experience of traveling from one country to another is more challenging for women and children, because they are more vulnerable to assault and exploitation as they travel across borders.

Henley, Joh, and Julie Robinson. "Mental health issues among refugee children and adolescents." Clinical Psychologist 15, no. 2 (2011): 51-62.

Because refugee children are often forced to flee their home country without ample time to prepare for the journey, they often do not have travel documents or other legal papers with them to legally enter foreign countries. As a result of illegal entry into foreign countries, refugee children often sustain physical injuries and/or experience high levels of stress.

Rutter, Jill. Supporting Refugee Children in 21st Century Britain: A Compendium of Essential Information. Stylus Publishing, LLC, 22883 Quicksilver Drive, Sterling, VA 20166-2012, 2001.

Rutter provides a specific example of the perilous journey that refugee children had to make. She asserts that almost all Vietnamese refugees in the United Kingdom made journeys in small boats--at least 10% of refugees perished from dehydration, drowning, or pirate attack--to Hong Kong and other Southeast Asian countries.

4.3 Settlement experiences

References for this subcategory:

Meda, Lawrence. Refugee Learner Experiences. A Case Study of Zimbabwean Refugee Children. Anchor Academic Publishing, 2017.

According to Meda, this stage refers to the adjustment of refugees to the social, political, economic, and cultural framework of the new society—for refugees who do settle in a new host country, rather than repatriate.

Henley, Joh, and Julie Robinson. "Mental health issues among refugee children and adolescents." Clinical Psychologist 15, no. 2 (2011): 51-62.

Henley and Robinson demonstrated that host country experiences may be as traumatic and distressing as home country experiences.

Sarr, Karla Giuliano, and Jacqueline Mosselson. "Issues in Teaching Refugees in US Schools." Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education 109, no. 2 (2010): 548-570.

Sarr and Mosselson affirmed that refugee children often face prejudice, discrimination and racism from their host communities that compound already difficult transitions to a new culture, setting and educational system.

Anbesse, Birke, Charlotte Hanlon, Atalay Alem, Samuel Packer, and Rob Whitley. "Migration and mental health: a study of low-income Ethiopian women working in Middle Eastern countries." International Journal of Social Psychiatry 55, no. 6 (2009): 557-568.

Some refugees face massive exploitation in work places mainly because of their status. This article reports that Ethiopian women who migrated to Middle Eastern countries described inhumane working conditions, physical and sexual abuse, and denial of basic freedoms such as meeting with their children.

5. Health and Nutrition in Settlement and Resettlement

This section refers to the health and nutrition of refugees (across several regions) once they are in the host country, or in a third country (resettlement). Examples and statistics will be drawn from multiple regions, moving beyond the original article’s focus on refugees who have settled in North America.

5.1 Water, environmental sanitation, shelter, and clothing

References for this subcategory:

Cronin, Aidan A., Dinesh Shrestha, Paul Spiegel, Fiona Gore, and Heiko Hering. "Quantifying the burden of disease associated with inadequate provision of water and sanitation in selected sub-Saharan refugee camps." Journal of water and health 7, no. 4 (2009): 557-568.

This study used a WHO methodology to estimate the burden of disease directly associated with incomplete water and sanitation provision in refugee camps in sub-Saharan African countries. This study demonstrates that the burden of disease is connected to inadequate water and sanitation provision in refugee settings.

5.2 Food and nutrition

References for this category:

Grijalva-Eternod, Carlos S., Jonathan CK Wells, Mario Cortina-Borja, Nuria Salse-Ubach, Mélody C. Tondeur, Carmen Dolan, Chafik Meziani, Caroline Wilkinson, Paul Spiegel, and Andrew J. Seal. "The double burden of obesity and malnutrition in a protracted emergency setting: a cross-sectional study of Western Sahara refugees." PLoS medicine 9, no. 10 (2012): e1001320.

Among households belonging to four Western Sahara refugee camps in Algeria, it was found that the double burden of obesity and under-nutrition is very prevalent.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC. "Malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies among Bhutanese refugee children--Nepal, 2007." MMWR. Morbidity and mortality weekly report 57, no. 14 (2008): 370.

This study, conducted by AMDA and CDC under the request of UNHCR and the World Food Programme among Bhutanese refugee children aged 6 to 59 months, found that although acute malnutrition was found in only 4.2% of the children, chronic malnutrition was found in 26.9% and anemia in 43.4%.

5.3 Health education

References for this category:

Pine, Barbara A., and Diane Drachman. "Effective child welfare practice with immigrant and refugee children and their families." Child Welfare 84, no. 5 (2005): 537.

This source provides a multistage migration framework to undersand the immigrant/refugee family's experience in emigration and immigration. It focuses on resettlement experiences in the United States, providing examples of family preservation services and health education programs.

5.4 Toxic stress (this may migrate over to be incorporated into the "Mental health" subcategory below)

References for this category:

Meyer, Sarah, Laura K. Murray, Eve S. Puffer, Jillian Larsen, and Paul Bolton. "The nature and impact of chronic stressors on refugee children in Ban Mai Nai Soi camp, Thailand." Global public health 8, no. 9 (2013): 1027-1047.

Using free list interviews and key informant interviews, this studies found that children in Ban Mai Noi Soi refugee camp in Burma are chronically exposed to stressors during their growth and development.

Panter‐Brick, Catherine, Marie‐Pascale Grimon, Michael Kalin, and Mark Eggerman. "Trauma memories, mental health, and resilience: A prospective study of Afghan youth." Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 56, no. 7 (2015): 814-825.

The study, conducted in the Afghan refugee camps of Peshawar, found heterogeneity in trauma exposures and malleability in traumatic memory over time in Afghan youth. Some youth in the study were able to develop and exercise resilience in the face of adversity, whereas others were not.:

Betancourt, Theresa S., Ryan K. McBain, Elizabeth A. Newnham, and Robert T. Brennan. "The intergenerational impact of war: longitudinal relationships between caregiver and child mental health in postconflict Sierra Leone." Journal of child psychology and psychiatry 56, no. 10 (2015): 1101-1107.

This study examines the relationship between caregiver mental health and child internalizing symptoms over a four-year period in post-conflict Sierra Leone and an important interplay between caregiver and child mental health within the post-conflict setting is reported. Many refugee families have been exposed to war, violence, and other forms of conflict, so this study offers additional perspective on the relationship between caregivers and child mental health in post-conflict Sierra Leone.

5.5 Mental health

References for this category:

Reed, Ruth V., Mina Fazel, Lynne Jones, Catherine Panter-Brick, and Alan Stein. "Mental health of displaced and refugee children resettled in low-income and middle-income countries: risk and protective factors." The Lancet 379, no. 9812 (2012): 250-265.

This study reviews the evidence for mental health outcomes and risk and protective factors in children who were forcibly displaced in low-income and middle-income settings, as well as high-income settings.

Lustig, Stuart L., Maryam Kia-Keating, Wanda Grant Knight, Paul Geltman, Heidi Ellis, J. David Kinzie, Terence Keane, and Glenn N. Saxe. "Review of child and adolescent refugee mental health." Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry 43, no. 1 (2004): 24-36.

This study provides a review of the stressful experiences and stress reactions among child and adolescent refugees. It also reviews interventions and ethical considerations in clinical and research work. It also structures this in terms of the migratory stage structure introduced earlier in this article. Unaccompanied minors, asylum seekers, and former child soldiers are referenced.

Brough, Mark, Don Gorman, Elvia Ramirez, and Peter Westoby. "YOUNG REFUGEES TALK ABOUT WELL‐BEING: A QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OF REFUGEE YOUTH MENTAL HEALTH FROM THREE STATES." Australian Journal of Social Issues 38, no. 2 (2003): 193-208.

This study conducted in-depth interviews with 76 young people from refugee backgrounds. It qualitatively analyzed the impact of stressors and coping strategies employed by these individuals.

5.6 Health services and access to healthcare

References for this category:

Derose, Kathryn Pitkin, José J. Escarce, and Nicole Lurie. "Immigrants and health care: sources of vulnerability." Health affairs 26, no. 5 (2007): 1258-1268.

This study examines the factors that affect immigrants' vulnerability, such as socioeconomic background, immigration status, limited English proficiency, stigma, and marginalization in the United States. I will draw specifically from examples of child- and family-specific barriers.

Murray, Sally B., and Sue A. Skull. "Hurdles to health: immigrant and refugee health care in Australia." Australian Health Review29, no. 1 (2005): 25-29.

This study examines the challenges refugees face in obtaining healthcare in Australia. I will also focus more so on child- and family-specific barriers.

Cote, Susan, Paul Geltman, Martha Nunn, Kathy Lituri, Michelle Henshaw, and Raul I. Garcia. "Dental caries of refugee children compared with US children." Pediatrics 114, no. 6 (2004): e733-e740.

This study compares the experience of newly arrived refugee children in receiving oral health care to that of United States children.

6. Education

With a little bit of restructuring, many of the elements in the current “Mental health of refugee children” article can be used under this section in the revised article. Below are the main subsections I have in mind, with additional references not already mentioned in the current Wikipedia article.

6.1 Education during settlement and resettlement

References for this category:

Dryden-Peterson, Sarah. "The educational experiences of refugee children in countries of first asylum." Migration Policy Institute (2015).

This report describes the educational histories of young refugee children in first-asylum countries. The author identifies four key aspects of educational experiences prevalent for American teachers and schools: language barriers to educational access, inadequate quality of instructure, discrimination in school settings, and limited and disrupted educational opportunities. It also includes findings from field-based case studies involving children from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar, Somalia, and Syria, who were living in the first-asylum countries of Bangladesh, Burundi, Egypt, Kenya, Malaysia, and Uganda.

6.2 Peace education

References for this category:

Sommers, Marc. "Peace education and refugee youth." Geneva: UNHCR. EPAU Working Paper (2001).

This report examines peace education concepts, assumptions and programs for refugee populations. It also examines the extent to which refugee youth understand the violence they confront and their responses to it.

7. Disability

In this section, I will talk about how disability, both mental and physical, affect refugee children.

7.1 Physical disability

References for this category:

Fellin, Melissa, Gillian King, Victoria Esses, Sally Lindsay, and Anne Klassen. "Barriers and facilitators to health and social service access and utilization for immigrant parents raising a child with a physical disability." International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care 9, no. 3 (2013): 135-145.

This report specifically describes the barriers faced by immigrant families with a child with a physical disability, particularly in terms of social service access and utilization.

7.2 Mental disability

References for this category:

McInnes, Keith, Narcisa Sarajlić, James Lavelle, and Iris Sarajlić. "Disability associated with psychiatric comorbidity and health status in Bosnian refugees living in Croatia." Jama 282, no. 5 (1999): 433-439.

This study examines the risk factors associated with mental disability in Bosnian refugees currently living in Croatia. From this report, I will mainly focus on findings related to refugee youth.