Study Finds Massive Trauma Among Undocumented Immigrants

FEATURING LUZ GARCINI – A new study has found that undocumented immigrants living near the border between California and Mexico are suffering huge rates of trauma. The psychology study was conducted using the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire and found that more than 80% of the population in question had a “lifetime history of traumatic events.” Those traumas arose from being a victim of, or a witness to violence, and also living in deep poverty.

Of the hundreds of people surveyed, a majority were women undocumented immigrants, many of whom were survivors of domestic violence.

View the study HERE.

Luz Garcini, postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Psychology at Rice University and the lead author of the study ‘One Scar Too Many: The Associations Between Traumatic Events and Psychological Distress Among Undocumented Mexican Immigrants’.