Immigrant families face different challenges when searching for quality child care in this country, and a new Urban Institute report looks at how their diverse experiences can help policymakers craft broader solutions.
The report talked with families from two smaller but important groups, families from Nigeria and Pakistan, about their struggles to find good preschools in Chicago. These parents said they faced barriers with language, forms, knowledge of the key program (Preschool for All), cost and fear of the government, according to “Fulfilling the Promise of Preschool for All: Insights into Issues Affecting Access for Selected Immigrant Groups in Chicago.”
“Although small, this study corroborates challenges raised by other research on immigrants and services, including language barriers, requirements for enrollment, the importance of cultural sensitivity and responsiveness in programs, and fear of interacting with government agencies. It also supports the suggestions of other research that in order to address these problems and to build trust, it is particularly important to work with trusted mediators and to create ongoing relationships with intermediary organizations that serve immigrant families.” – “Fulfilling the Promise of Preschool for All.”
The report also stressed that different immigrant groups have different challenges.
“…Immigrant families are clearly not homogeneous, and the differences in their experiences are likely to be driven by other realities of their lives. As a result of these barriers, ensuring access to immigrant families requires moving away from assumptions that all immigrant families have similar problems, and that their problems can be addressed with universal solutions.”
Far from an exhaustive study, researchers stressed their work should help explore the issues of access to quality child care, not offer definitive conclusions. It also has an excellent and in-depth executive summary.
Thanks to CLASP, which has a good summary of the report on its website, for highlighting this research.