Globalization of emotion work: Fear management in child protection work with undocumented immigrant families

Current social work practice with undocumented immigrant families takes place in an at-times hostile policy environment. Social workers engaged in child welfare work with undocumented immigrants face the challenge of a doubly-hostile environment in which to work, given parents' fears of child removal. While the challenges of child protection practice with immigrant families are well-documented, little is known about the process of client engagement from the workers' perspective - and whether the process of engagement fosters better case outcomes for children and families. Building on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 20 child welfare workers in the Northeastern United States in 2009, findings suggest that that child welfare workers spend a considerable amount of time and energy managing fear and mistrust when working with immigrant families during the engagement phase - and beyond. Drawing on best practices for the promotion of rigor in qualitative data analysis, factors related to fear management were identified, namely immigrants' experiences in their countries of origin and immigration policy and practice in the United States, especially deportation. Implications relate to the challenges of facilitating access to child welfare-related social and health services that can foster positive outcomes for children and families.