The situation of Thomas is, unfortunately, not unique. In the midst of war and conflict, many refugee children become separated from their parents due to violence, illness, or flight. Known internationally as “separated children,” they may be taken in by relatives or other adults, or they may remain “unaccompanied,” surviving on their own, or with other children, or cared for in refugee camps through special programs for children without caregivers.

Through the U.S. Refugee Program (USRP), approximately 10,000 separated children have been resettled in the U.S. since 1997. Once in the U.S., these children are reunified with parents or extended family members, or placed into specialized foster care programs for refugee children without family. This “Spotlight” article will discuss some programming challenges and resources for separated refugee children living in the U.S. and cared for by relatives or by foster families. (For a more detailed examination of separated children, see the BRYCS document, Separated Refugee Children in the United States: Challenges and Opportunities.)

Guardianship placements

Children resettled with extended family members are often called “guardianship” cases by refugee resettlement workers, because of the Department of State requirement that such families receive information about guardianship laws and procedures in the U.S. Establishing legal guardianship ensures that relatives are able to make important decisions for a child regarding educational issues, medical care or hospitalization, and it can enable a relative to include a child on such benefits as health insurance and public or senior housing arrangements. Guardianship does not sever the parent’s legal rights to their child, nor does it close the door to the future possibility of family reunification.

Some refugee populations seem to include few separated children (such as Russian and Ukrainian refugees), while other refugee groups include numerous separated children (such as Hmong, Liberian and Sudanese refugees). The nature of a particular conflict or war can determine whether or not children become separated from their parents – conflicts with significant violence are more likely to create familial separation due to death, injury, or the need to seek safety elsewhere.

Culture can also be a significant factor in whether children become separated from their families and how they are cared for. In traditional Hmong society, if a husband dies and his wife remarries into a different clan, the children from the first marriage typically remain part of the father’s extended family while their mother has become part of her new husband’s family, though sometimes a girl child may be allowed to remain with her mother if an arrangement is worked out between the families. For the Hmong refugees now coming to the U.S. from the Wat Tham Krabok in Thailand, such cases are being resettled as guardianship cases, even if the mother is also being resettled separately in the U.S. The traditional Hmong practice of early marriages has led to some cases of married minors (where both spouses are under age 18) and a need to examine relevant state laws (for a summary of state marriage laws, go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/topics/Table_Marriage.htm)

In Liberian culture, children are commonly taken in by other families, whether due to parental loss, migration issues, or for access to education or other opportunities. To learn more about the treatment of separated children within Liberian culture, go to the new BRYCS document, Liberian Refugees: Cultural Considerations for Social Service Providers.

In the Hmong and Liberian situations noted above, refugee resettlement workers will be required to explain guardianship procedures here in the U.S. However, explaining guardianship procedures and laws may be the easy part; getting refugee families to follow through with the process is often the bigger challenge. Some of the difficulties can include:

• Making guardianship seem important: Newly arriving refugees are often used to addressing immediate, tangible needs, which can make it more difficult to focus on something intangible like guardianship. Establishing guardianship can seem like a kind of insurance – to prevent or address uncertain problems in the future – making it seem less urgent in the short-term.

• Making the guardianship process less intimidating: For some refugees, the prospect of going through a court or legal process, such as seeking the advice of an attorney, may be very intimidating, particularly for refugees who did not have such procedures in their home country. They may also be afraid that the government could take their children away, or they may have concerns about the possible impact on their immigration status.

• Bridging different cultural understandings of family: For refugees coming from more traditional societies, the concept of “family” includes extended family members, compared to the American concept of family as the immediate nuclear family of parents and children. Thus, some refugees may not comprehend why it is necessary to establish guardianship for a child who is culturally considered a part of their family already. In both Hmong and Liberian society, there is a cultural expectation that families will take in and care for separated children when the need arises. This cultural openness can make the care of a separated child commonplace, and this ordinariness may make it difficult for these refugees to understand why they would need to go through a legal process to establish a relationship that seems self-evident.

For refugees who have gone through the process of registration in refugee camps, it may be helpful to explain guardianship as a kind of registration with their new local government to establish that they are a family unit so that the adult relatives have the authority to make important decisions in the absence of the child’s birth parents. Discussing different cultural notions of “family” (for example, contrasting the concept of nuclear family with that of the extended family) may also be helpful.

Some refugee families, particularly those with serious health conditions, may also want to know about “standby guardianship,” a pending guardianship arrangement available in some states so that parents can name a guardian in the event that the primary caregiver dies or becomes incapacitated (for more information on this topic, go to: www.standbyguardianship.org).

BRYCS has created three resources for staff working with refugee children cared for by extended family members:

1. Suitability Assessment Tips: Safeguarding Refugee Children Who Arrive Without Parents
2. Guardianship Fact Sheet for Staff Assisting Refugee Families
3. Guardianship Summary Sheet