Question

What is the impact on people who are descended from ancestors who experience involuntary migration.

Answer 1

American Indians/First Nations Peoples

 This population has been exposed to generations of violent colonization, assimilation policies, and general loss.

 Example of Stressor: The Americanization of Indian Boarding Schools and the forced assimilation among their students.

Current Manifestations: “High rates of suicide, homicide, domestic violence, child abuse, alcoholism and other social problems.” (Johnson, n.d.)

Immigrants

• Forced migration may be the result of conflict, natural disaster, famine, development projects and policies, or nuclear and chemical disasters (Forced Migration Online, 2012).
• These various populations may have been exposed to discrimination, racism, forced assimilation/acculturation, colonization, and genocide.

African-Americans/Blacks

• This population has been exposed to generations of discrimination, racism, race- based segregation and resulting poverty.
• Members of this population may have been exposed to microaggressions, which are defined as “events involving discrimination, racism, and daily hassles that are targeted at individuals from diverse racial and ethnic groups.” Example of Stressors: slavery; colonialism/imperialism
• Current Manifestations: Mistrust of police; self- worth (Rich & Grey 2005)
• Self-hatred among Blacks/African Americans who act out their aggression on people who look like them. Impoverished Communities

Poverty can lead to:
 family stress
 child abuse and neglect

 substance abuse
 mental health challenges

 Domestic violence

Families Experiencing Intergenerational Poverty

 Poor individuals and families are not evenly distributed across communities or throughout the country. Instead, they tend to live near one another, clustering in certain neighborhoods and regions.

 This concentration of poverty results in higher crime rates, underperforming public schools, poor housing and health conditions, as well as limited access to private services and job opportunities.

Poverty in these communities is frequently intergenerational.

 The lack of access to services, increased exposure to violence, and higher risk of victimization that exist in these communities often results in a much greater potential for experiencing trauma and re-traumatization among residents than in communities that are not areas of concentrated poverty.

 Example of Stressors: Hunger; poor or inadequate housing; lack of access to health care; community crime

 Current Manifestations: Domestic violence; child abuse; substance abuse