International Displacement and Family Stress in Latin America

Abstract

Family stress theories posit that individual family members are positioned to adapt to external stressors differently and that these differences can strain family systems. Analyzing in-depth interviews with a diverse sample of migrant mothers in Costa Rica, we investigate how families adjust to the stressors of international displacement. Three stages of family stress adjustment emerged from our analysis: (1) parents’ prioritization of safety, (2) parents’ and children’s grappling with new legal, economic, and social circumstances, and (3) parents’ protracted uncertainty in one or more of these realms concomitant with children’s feeling resettled. A fourth stage of (4) convergent parent and child resettling also emerged, but only among select families who enjoyed stable financial or emotional support from extended kin or local institutions in Costa Rica. Parents’ perceptions of their security, and social, economic, and legal circumstances contributed to the progression between stages of stress adjustment.

Design and implementation of an intensive panel survey with refugees and other migrants in need of protection in Costa Rica

“…Legal, economic, and social incorporation, in turn, have implications for MNPs' evolving family dynamics [26,27]. Multiple qualitative studies, for instance, document that displaced families' stress adjustment processes ebb and flow over the course of years [39,44], alongside changes in parents' and children's legal and socioeconomic circumstances [51]. These stress adjustment processes unfold between multiple family members who have divergent experiences in the same place abroad, but MNPs' transnational family structure often also changes with time.…”

“…This means that many do not have extensive social networks to draw on abroad [ 49 , 50 ]. Even when they do, their prolonged hardships and stressors can strain their relationships with kin who live in the same destination context [ 49 , 51 ]. Institutional supports, such as NGOs and public ministries, too, are often stretched too thin to support MNP with regularity [ 52 ].…”