Latest / Wellness in Today's World / Ep. 24: “Psychology Can Restore Humanity”: Understanding Immigration Through Mental Health

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Ep. 24: “Psychology Can Restore Humanity”: Understanding Immigration Through Mental Health · Wellness in Today's World

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Welcome to "Wellness in Today's World," the podcast where we discuss wellness,
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psychology, and everything in between.
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I'm your host, Debra Kawahara,
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and with each episode, we have thoughtful conversations about what it means
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to live well. This month, we celebrate National Latinx Heritage Month.
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We're exploring a topic that impacts millions of lives and remains highly relevant:
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Immigration. Beyond the headlines and
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public debates are stories of resilience,
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family, communities, and belonging.
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Joining us today is Dr. Alfonso Mercado,
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a psychologist, researcher, and chair of
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the APA 2024 Presidential Task Force Report
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on Psychological Science and Immigration Today.
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His work and personal connection to this topic offers a unique perspective
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on what psychological science can teach us about the immigrant experience
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and why it matters to all of us.
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Dr. Mercado, Alfonso, thank you for joining me today.
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I'm looking forward to our conversation.
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Me too! It's a pleasure to be here,
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Debra.
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Wonderful! Well, let's get started.
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So I wanted to start off because I know you've been dedicated
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to this ~ area for... even from your graduate school,
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you actually chose a specific mentor and program because you wanted
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to focus on immigration as part of your area of expertise.
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And I know when I've seen you present how personally moving your
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presentations have been in regards to this area.
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So I wanted to start off, take us back to where this passion began
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and what drew you to this work.
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Yeah, thank you for that question,
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Debra. I don't get asked that question often.
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But it's great to tap into my passion,
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right? Of why I do what I do, where I do ~ the work in the United States.
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~ You know, given that I'm in a geographically,
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you know, rich community on the US-Mexico border.
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But yeah, so ~ son ~ of Mexican immigrants.
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You know, growing up in Southern California,
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navigating the acculturation journey,
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you know, and coming from a traditional,
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you know, Catholic Mexican family,
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~ I was able to witness some of the inequities in healthcare
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~ with my parents, given,
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you know, their medical
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you know, ~ journey in this life,
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~ I was able to witness that.
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And coming also in LA, I was, you know,
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raised in Southern California,
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~ so my community was very diverse,
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mostly Latino, African American,
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Asian population.
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And it was evident that there was a need,
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right? Need of multicultural,
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bilingual behavioral health
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specialists and that is where one of the roots of why I do
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and what I do come from is living it,
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right? And now witnessing it, right?
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As a psychologist on the US-Mexico border working with recent immigrants,
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right, ~ seeking asylum in McAllen,
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Texas, where
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it was Ground Zero of family separations many years ago in 2018
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and the influx of unaccompanied minors.
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I think I'm at where I need to be professionally,
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Mm. Mm-hmm.
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right? And personally,
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~ given, you know, I'm working with this population here and with APA
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and TPA in Texas, I've come to realize that
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it's important to be at the table where important decisions are made.
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Given that's been my leadership trajectory both at the state and national level.
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~ And many times it's fueled by that lived experience,
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right, that I'm sharing with you.
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Well thank you for that. And I'm just gonna highlight some of the words that
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you used in case our listeners aren't psychologists or in our area.
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"Acculturation" we can talk about is kind of that process of
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how do you integrate into your identity and your life both
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the culture that you originally come from,
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and then the culture that you immigrate to.
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So for our listeners that may not know acculturation,
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that basically is what he was talking about.
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The other two acronyms that he used,
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APA is the American Psychological Association.
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So we will probably be using that quite a bit in our speaking.
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Yeah.
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And TPA is Texas Psychological Association.
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Correct.
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So
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you can see,
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he's very involved in a lot of psychological ~ associations or organizations.
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Yes, Debra, thank you for clarifying that.
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So yeah, we're working with APA and TPA and you know,
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professional associations are so important,
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I think, in any discipline, in any profession,
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~ because they're the ones that help with our profession,
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right? And educate
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Mm-hmm.
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the public of what we do, right,
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and what psychologists do and what psychology can do,
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right, in our communities.
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Yep, absolutely. 100%.
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So I do want to talk about you chairing the 2024 Presidential Task Force
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on Psychological Science and Immigration Today.
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Very important work. Anybody that wants it can get it on the internet.
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But what I want you to do is maybe talk about the work that was done
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and the important findings
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that emerged from the task force's work on this.
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Yes, thank you for that question,
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Debra. And I think that ~ it was about time that,
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you know, psychology updated the science on immigration and health.
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~
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Mm-hmm.
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The last time APA did that, the American Psychological Association,
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was back in 2011, 2012. And that was from the seminal "Crossroads" report,
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you know, that Psychology published,
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which was a really great
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foundation of what psychology and psychological science said about immigration.
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As you know, and as the listeners can attest,
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a lot has changed since 2011,
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2012, regarding immigration in our country.
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I thought it was a good time that APA updated the science regarding immigration.
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And we used different lenses, different perspectives in regards to
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the science of immigration and health.
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You know, we looked at education and training ~ future psychologists
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and mental health professionals and allied health professionals,
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to see if, you know, their training and curriculum
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did just that, right? Highlighted how to effectively work with vulnerable
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populations, including the immigrant population.
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And then we also looked at advocacy,
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right? We looked at advocacy, the lens of advocacy in science.
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We looked at research, updating the research,
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looking at what research practices...
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I do a lot of field work, field research in the community.
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My students and colleagues and I are going to tent encampments in
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Hmm.
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northern Mexico, at humanitarian respite centers in McAllen,
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Texas. And we work with those populations right on the ground;
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feet on the ground working with them in the research setting.
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And then also we updated what the science says on how to ~ effectively work with
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this population in the clinical practice.
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So we also
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Mm.
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looked at that domain in the report,
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~ and looking at the best practices in working with the immigrant population,
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the undocumented population, and how behavioral health can play a role in this,
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you know, public health crisis which we're currently living.
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You know, you talked about your work in the community.
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And I also know the task force as part of their work went to the border
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to look at what is happening right now.
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I wanted to ask you, would you share a little bit about kind of what you observed,
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what the task force talked about?
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How did it impact the task force and particularly you?
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'Cause you can talk about your experience.
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Yes, absolutely. That's a great question.
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And you know, we did a short film or very short documentary ~ highlighting that,
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right? That work that the APA task force did here at the border in South Texas
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and northern Mexico. It's on the APA website that highlights
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the immigration and health task force.
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And you're right, I thought as chair of the task force,
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I thought it was important
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to bring these 12 national, international experts in immigration
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and science and health here, right here at the border to witness ~ the reality,
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right, of what's going on. And that was in the beginning of 2024.
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They all came down here. You know,
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we met in McAllen, Texas, and you know,
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we sat down and said, this is what we need to do.
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You know,
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Yeah.
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we collaboratively worked together on the Psychological Science
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and Immigration Today report. We made recommendations,
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we came with these conclusions that science,
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you know, ~ guided us to make.
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And we also were you know,
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on the ground, right? We crossed the border,
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we walked from McAllen, Texas.
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The International Bridge of Hidalgo,
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Texas. We walked over the Rio Grande river,
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went through immigration, both the US and Mexico side,
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and we had buses waiting for us,
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for the task force and other volunteers,
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~ with the support with from the ~ you know,
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~ Catholic charities of the Rio Grande Valley and the director,
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Sister Norma Pimentel,
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who has been instrumental in that community partnership.
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She's opened the door to science.
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You know, because of
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Yeah.
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her, we've done so much work down here ~ regarding research
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and clinical endeavors that we've collected pilot data that has
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led to NIH-funded research now
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Mm.
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for a couple grants.
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~ But the task force, you know,
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they were here. We went to the tent encampments in Reynosa,
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Tamaulipas, Mexico, where we volunteered.
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They were able to see the realities of almost 3,000 families,
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over 300 children living in tent encampments.
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And the weather in Texas, as you could imagine,
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the summers are very, very hot,
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right? Very humid,
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Mm-hmm.
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lot of heat waves. Winter times,
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Texas is unpredictable. You know,
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a few years back we've had Winter Storm Uri where almost the entire state
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of Texas lost power for two weeks,
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right? Because of the freeze, you know.
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Yeah.
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We've had, you know, floods where the Rio Grande river,
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you know, floods and wipes these tent encampments away from...
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You know, they're very close to the border and to the river where,
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you know, there are a lot of catastrophes,
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a lot of crises. At the time of the task force visit,
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they were able to meet with a local pastor there,
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Sister Norma Pimentel as well,
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and the volunteers.
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And we were able to give back as well.
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You know, we did fundraisers too.
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~ We were avoiding this- I wanted to make sure we were avoiding
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the health tourism kind of aspect of this visit.
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So when speaking with Sister Norma,
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the director there, it was evident that the work that we've done for many years
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is not health tourism. You know,
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we are devoted in shedding light into the health
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of what certain immigration policies are causing to these humans;
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you know, they're humans, they're children.
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We were able to do that. We were able to volunteer,
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they were able to visit, talk to the families.
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And I think that also fueled, you know,
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the energy the task force needed to complete this report on time.
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And from what I remember, it's one of the most
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productive reports at APA. We finished in less than a year.
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We even had an NBI resolution at APA Council,
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which is, you know, bylaws and policies that the Association passes
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on immigration and health. And I think all of that helped make
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~ this work meaningful to the task force members.
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Yeah, the word that comes to my mind is,
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these people are humans, and the human-
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how we're treating them and the humanity,
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you know, or lack thereof... Correct.
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Correct.
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Something I voice when I give my talks is that,
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you know, psychology can restore humanity.
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We just need to do it. Right?
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It's it
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Exactly. Exactly. I mean, I think that's what's so powerful in terms
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of the work that you're doing.
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I mean, yes, it's not that the science and the statistics and
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the data aren't important, but that getting it to people
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to realize those numbers, those stats are real people,
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are real families. And it's affecting their lives.
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Absolutely. And the stories are impactful,
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right? My students and I and colleagues that do this kind of work ~
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on trauma and health, right, with this population,
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we hear hundreds of stories, right,
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at a time, you know, and... You know,
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we're human too, right? So we wanna make-
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this is what the report highlights too,
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is that we wanna make sure that we're okay
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to effectively work with this population,
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both in the research context and clinically too.
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Because the stories that we've heard,
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you know, day after day are heartbreaking and they're real.
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And the land here in South Texas has hundreds and thousands of those stories that
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I'm talking about. And we walk these lands.
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They're beyond numbers, right?
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~ And I think it's important to know these stories.
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And our research highlights that,
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right? The the science sheds light into the alarming rates of trauma exposure
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and symptoms among this population is very concerning.
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Mm-hmm.
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As you're talking about the trauma and the hundreds of stories and the impact,
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what would be important for us to know about the unique mental health challenges
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of immigrants today?
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You know, throughout the years ~ my students and I and colleagues have done,
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you know, work throughout
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history as my
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This is
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journey as a professor here, in this small little border town.
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And, you know, we've done clinical work and clinical research,
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through President Obama's administration,
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right? Trump 1.0,
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Biden, and Trump 2.0. And you know,
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you would think policies would change and shift.
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Witnessing what we've witnessed,
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what I witnessed, you know, administration after administration,
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not much differences exist.
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You know, policies are repackaged,
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renamed, and the same system that causes abuse
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to children and to families and to adults...
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I mean, we even see it now on the news almost every day,
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right?
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Mm-hmm.
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~ ...exist, right? So we are dealing with a crisis,
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right?
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Here on the US-Mexico border,
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and that is of mental health, right?
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McAllen, Texas, where I live, is the third-safest city in the country.
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But you don't see that in the news,
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right? ~
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No.
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Third-safest city.
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What science, psychological science tells us,
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especially the research that we're doing on the ground,
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you know, is the only emergency at the US-Mexico border is that of mental health.
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Mm.
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Right?
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Mm.
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So, you know, you highlighted all the different key players,
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I will say, in this immigration crisis that we're in.
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And particularly to mental health.
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What would you want policymakers,
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legislators, educators, healthcare professionals,
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community leaders, if you had this magic wand or what
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you would want them to know so that they could take action,
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what would you say if you had their ear?
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That's a great question, Debra.
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And really it's simple.
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I think it's so important that when these policies are being developed
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and brainstormed, it's important to have a medical professional involved
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in these committees, right? In these teams,
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because it is evident that no medical professional
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or psychological professional are present
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in the
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development of these policies,
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because if they were, you know,
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it would be very concerning for me as a psychologist,
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you know, doing this kind of work and having these anti-immigration policies causing
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human suffering, right? Causing abuse.
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You know, the symptoms that I see in these kiddos with the Office
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of Refugee Resettlement. And adults,
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you know, when I'm doing evaluations.
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And children, young as two years old,
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symptoms that I see when I see veterans coming back from war,
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in these children. And how is that possible?
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Right? What do we do? We need to
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highlight human dignity in these policies.
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We need to restore humanity, right?
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And assure that trauma-informed care is integrated
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in these policies, right? And I know that there's a lot of money,
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right? That these agencies are being given,
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but they're using it in different ways that are not solving this problem of
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how we can restore human dignity,
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right? And how we can provide trauma-informed care rather than
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causing trauma.
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You know, as you were talking,
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what it made me think about is intergenerational trauma.
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One of the things that I know is going on is,
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you know, the Japanese American incarceration during World War II,
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people are still on their healing journey from that,
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from the 1940s.
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Very much what's happening today,
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how that is parallel to what happened...
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A thousand percent, Debra. Not too long ago,
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I was giving a talk at APA, the Practice Leadership Conference.
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And you know, Dr. Ina, who is a
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~ Japanese ~ psychologist,
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Mm-hmm.
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and she lived it, right? You know who I'm referring to?
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I do.
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I had her on my show and I just went to Tule Lake pilgrimage.
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She we we
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We gave a panel and I was showing,
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I was presenting my work, she was seeing my slides,
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she was seeing the pictures of the children of these camps.
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She goes back and says, "Alfonso,
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I've seen that face before of a child," three-year-old,
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let's call him Chuyito, right?
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"I've seen that little Chuyito's face before." And then she brings out her picture
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when she was in the camp as a baby,
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as a three year old, four year old little girl.
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And Debra, it was the exact same facial expression.
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Yes.
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Chuyito
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We had a fundraiser. It was during Christmas.
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Me and my students went, you know,
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we had a lot of toys and activities with these kids.
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They had these, you know,
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toys that they haven't seen in years and months during their migration
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Mm-hmm.
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journey. But the facial expressions,
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you know, the face of trauma was evident.
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And we were able to make that comparison and how this happened back in World War II.
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And here we are today, and history
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is repeating itself.
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Even though there's many people that have done lots of work,
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and Dr. Ina is one of those that is continuing to try
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to go to these detention centers,
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saying, "Close them down because I personally know the trauma
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and the lifelong healing
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Yeah no.
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that has to take place and the community." So it's not even just
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the actual descend-, but you have descendants of those that then endured
22:28
Correct.
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the experience. And so we're talking about policies that go beyond just who's
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experiencing it.
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Correct. It's not just now.
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It's history, right?
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Mm-hmm.
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And what do we do as psychologists if we have an oath to do no harm,
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if I'm making these recommendations and these evaluations of,
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you know, this twelve year old needs to be reunited with mom.
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You know, he's
22:56
Yeah.
22:56
not eating, he's not sleeping,
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you know, he's soiling himself,
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you know, he does not have autism,
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he does not have schizophrenia,
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he's talking to himself at night,
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pacing back and forth because he is talking his ancestors'...
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to be reunited with mom.
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Yeah. I mean to think about these young kids,
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young children, being separated from their parents.
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The anxiety, the depression,
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the confusion, like why aren't I with them?
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You know, all of that. And being so young of not being able to even make sense
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or think that the world is safe.
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Exactly, and you and I know what happens to a child when that is threatened.
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And the lifelong impact of that imprinting that that has.
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Well, Debra, I'm sure you'll probably ask about stories...
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I would love to hear things that impacted
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you so, so significantly.
24:01
Talking about this, you know, imprinted and how it affects people and humans,
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right? Regarding family separations and the trauma endured by these children.
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You know, I had the opportunity of assessing ~ a group of children that were
24:18
separated back in 2018, here on the border.
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And I was able to visit them five years later
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in their home, you know, in 2023.
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That was three
24:29
Hmm.
24:30
years ago. A nonprofit organization needed some consultation,
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right? And I was able to work with these children.
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Some were adults five years later,
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by the way, right? They were living
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Mm-hmm.
24:42
across the United States with their sponsors,
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right? Their families. And it was evident from case after case,
24:51
that these children were not the same.
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You know, they
24:55
Mm.
24:55
were affected significantly. You know,
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we are dealing with not only short-term effects,
25:01
psychological and physical effects of family separation when that happens,
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but we're also dealing with long-term psychological functioning and deterioration.
25:12
And what I was saying, you know,
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five years later, and some were now adults,
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is that
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it affected them drastically.
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Either their sponsor, who was a friend of the family or grandparent or
25:27
a parent in some cases, they said,
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"Mijo is not the same anymore."
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You know, and it was evident that it affected them significantly.
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These are hundreds and thousands of children,
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you know, that we're talking about.
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And family separations, you know,
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do have long-term psychological effects.
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And that's something that I witnessed,
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you know, with these children that I was able to see.
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When you were talking, what it made me imagine is that prior
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to the separation, you have this normally develop-
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you know, whatever "normal" is,
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but developmentally within what we call milestones,
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that they're going along and they're pretty much doing what kids do.
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But after this,
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they don't have that innocence.
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They don't have that kind of vibrancy because of this extraordinary event that
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has taken place in their life.
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And similarly to any veterans you were talking about,
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they're not gonna have a life that just goes back to
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the development of trajectory that we see in most kids because
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of this traumatic event that they've now endured,
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they have to integrate that trauma into their life,
26:51
right? 'Cause they can't erase it.
26:52
Correct.
26:54
And when there is no treatment or support available as a result
27:01
of these policies, it's very concerning.
27:04
There can be, right? ~
27:07
Yeah.
27:07
But unfortunately, trauma-informed care
27:11
is not integrated in the immigration system in the United States.
27:15
You know, it does make us think policy is at the larger national level,
27:22
right? But the impact is at the individual and familial level.
27:27
And oftentimes the impact of those policies don't then
27:33
get addressed after the policy is enacted.
27:36
Correct. And that's why mentioned the importance of having a medical psychological,
27:42
you know, clinician present, ~ you know,
27:45
when these policies are being developed,
27:48
right? Someone who has a license to practice medicine and psychology
27:52
is not going to agree on certain practices,
27:56
you know, that cause clear
28:00
trauma and abuse
28:01
Mm-hmm.
28:02
in children and in adults.
28:04
We've been talking a lot about trauma and the negative effects
28:09
of these immigration policies,
28:11
but I also know that there are strengths and resilience that immigrant
28:18
communities come with. I just-
28:20
I don't want us to leave the listeners with just
28:26
the negative impact or negative effects.
28:29
I wanna also highlight the strength and resilience that immigrant communities bring
28:35
to the United States. Because that often goes unsaid.
28:39
Absolutely. And that is a conclusion that the report highlighted,
28:44
the APA report that we worked on,
28:46
is that science and research, what it's telling us is the resiliency,
28:52
the resilient nature among this community can inform our healthcare system
28:58
in our country,
28:59
Mm-hmm.
29:00
can expand the prevention science and
29:03
highlight the interventions and treatment programs that
29:10
can allow people to thrive even more.
29:13
Despite the trauma exposure and
29:17
the anti-immigration policies causing the trauma and abuse that we're talking about,
29:23
this population and these communities
29:26
are resilient, and there's different theoretical frameworks,
29:30
right? You know, that help explain
29:32
Yeah.
29:33
why we are seeing what we are seeing.
29:35
One being known as the "Hispanic health paradox" model.
29:40
That model of understanding the immigrant health is that,
29:47
you know, we're looking at this population's resiliency,
29:53
one area of science that has contributed to that
29:57
is the cultural values,
30:00
Mm.
30:00
you know, in these families,
30:02
in these children, where they're serving as a buffer,
30:07
right? As a protective factor,
30:10
like a shield, you
30:11
Yeah.
30:11
know, saying, "I am being protected by these practices.
30:17
In the abuse and trauma that I'm enduring,
30:20
my ancestors are going to help me.
30:23
You know, the memory of my mother and father,
30:27
who died in the journey in the Darien Gap,
30:30
are going
30:30
Mm-hmm.
30:31
to be with me and help me survive." And those cultural values are-
30:37
they're embracing them and that's why we're not seeing the severe negative health
30:43
outcomes
30:44
that we would typically see in other populations.
30:48
So that is one framework of understanding of why that level
30:53
of resiliency is present. And what the report highlighted,
30:58
the APA report, was just that,
31:00
that it could help inform our health system here in our country.
31:04
You know, and you talked about cultural values.
31:07
We also know identity and belongingness,
31:11
how those also, you know, the combination of those really
31:16
are protective factors or buffer us.
31:20
Mm-hmm.
31:21
For our listeners, if they weren't familiar with Latinx communities,
31:27
what
31:27
would be some of those cultural values that you saw in action?
31:32
Like it's just being practiced?
31:34
then?
31:35
Yes,
31:35
absolutely. I think the examples I gave shed light into familiism,
31:41
right? "Familismo,"
31:42
Mm-hmm.
31:42
the family is central, but when you have these policies attacking it,
31:47
straight to the core of the separation of the family,
31:51
although physically
31:54
they're not together, the central core of the family is embraced,
31:59
you know, by this person and the notion of,
32:03
"I will be with them soon. I'm doing this for my family," you know?
32:07
Mm-hmm.
32:08
"I am here for my children," right?
32:10
Mm-hmm.
32:10
"For my
32:11
grandparents, to have a better life,
32:14
to survive. If I would have stayed home in my home country,
32:18
for example,
32:20
poverty, violence, death," right?
32:23
Mm-hmm.
32:24
It's beyond surviving. You know,
32:26
they are, you know, ~ thriving.
32:29
And when we look at families, or familiism,
32:32
right, is one central Latino cultural value in addition
32:37
to others like spirituality. I mentioned,
32:40
you know, praying to ancestors,
32:42
to a higher power, that is another central core,
32:46
kind of like the twelve-year-old boy that I shared with you who I
32:50
saw at the detention facility in Dilley,
32:52
Texas.
32:53
The staff are concerned about,
32:55
you know, "Dr. Mercado, we think he has psychosis,
32:58
you know, he needs treatment."
32:59
Yeah.
33:00
Doing a culturally responsive evaluation,
33:04
psychological evaluation where I,
33:07
you know, I'm aware of this person's culture and their family
33:11
and their cultural values and what it means to them.
33:14
You know, come to find out it wasn't a psychotic episode,
33:18
right? They
33:18
Mm. Mm-hmm.
33:19
were praying to their ancestors,
33:22
you know, to be reunited with mom,
33:24
right? To be reunited with dad.
33:27
So that spirituality is there.
33:31
Respect, "personalismo," you know,
33:34
there's various cultural values that are central to Latinx communities that
33:41
aid to the level of resiliency,
33:44
you know, that contributes to the resilient person.
33:47
They act as a shield when things are happening to them.
33:52
I love that. You know, as we're talking about cultural values and strengths,
33:58
you know, part of this is to celebrate Latinx Heritage Month and you know,
34:05
celebrating the culture, the history,
34:08
the contributions. So I wanted you just to talk about why is it important
34:14
for us to recognize
34:16
the immigrant experience and celebrate them in terms of this month?
34:22
That is a great question. And,
34:25
you know, and that's something that we highlighted,
34:27
Debra, in the beginning of the report.
34:29
So I hope the listeners here will read the report soon and download
34:34
it and talk about just that, the strengths,
34:38
you know, what they bring to our country.
34:41
And I'm gonna tell you: a lot.
34:43
You know, we are looking at billions and billions of dollars to the economy.
34:50
We have Fortune 500 companies and huge corporations founded
34:56
by immigrants. You know: Eli
34:57
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
34:59
Lilly, Yahoo, Tesla, you name it.
35:02
These are folks that live here in the United States and they are immigrants.
35:07
It's something that not a lot of...
35:09
We don't really see in the news nowadays regarding
35:13
Mm-hmm.
35:13
immigration and the economy. And all these
35:17
~ leading corporations and systems that have been founded by immigrants,
35:24
let alone the diversity, the richness,
35:27
you know, that they bring to our
35:30
communities. And that is the reason why many of us like good food.
35:36
You know,
35:37
Uh-huh.
35:38
we can have different types of food every day in our backyard,
35:41
in our little town, because of these amazing restaurants that have
35:46
the best food ever.
35:48
Absolutely. Absolutely.
35:51
So given their contributions and things that we know they contribute
35:56
to our society, what is one action that listeners can
36:01
do to support immigrants in their communities?
36:06
That is a really great question.
36:08
And you know, one thing that we made clear in the report also,
36:12
Debra, was that immigration is more unifying than one might think,
36:18
and that immigration affects everyone,
36:22
not just the immigrant community,
36:25
not just the vulnerable, you know,
36:28
communities, ~ the undocumented,
36:31
individuals.
36:32
It affects our neighbors. It affects US citizens.
36:35
One example, Minnesota. Right?
36:37
Yes.
36:38
~ I had the privilege of most recently doing a psychological first
36:44
aid training with Dr. Melissa Brymer from UCLA to
36:48
the Minnesota Psychological Association with psychologists
36:52
and mental health professionals to give them tools needed
36:56
during these difficult times. And that Minnesota is just one example
37:00
of how it affected the neighbor,
37:02
the US citizens. So what you are seeing and what you are feeling
37:08
and how it's affecting you is real.
37:11
You're human too, you know?
37:14
So I wanted to highlight that,
37:17
right?
37:17
Mm-hmm.
37:18
That
37:18
it affects our neighbors and us as well,
37:22
right? In different ways, but it does.
37:25
During times of uncertainty, people come together,
37:29
and we're human, right?
37:29
Yep. Okay.
37:32
So that is the takeaway that I wanted to highlight is that,
37:36
you know, immigration is more unifying than
37:39
one might believe.
37:40
As you talked about Minnesota,
37:42
the concept of neighboring, because neighbors started helping
37:46
out neighbors because they knew,
37:48
"I'll go shopping for you, I'll take your kids to school." guess
37:53
I wanna highlight one person can help another person and that makes an impact.
37:59
One person can help a community.
38:02
Right? Exactly.
38:03
Exactly. Exactly.
38:05
I mean, how powerful is that?
38:08
One might be quick to say, "Well,
38:09
what can I do? I can't make a difference.
38:11
It's just me. It's just one vote.
38:13
I'm not gonna change things." That is not true.
38:16
We are seeing it. You know, day after day,
38:19
these communities coming together,
38:22
you know, in support of communities that are in need,
38:26
and they can make a difference.
38:28
One of the things that I've thought about a lot and people are writing about
38:32
a lot is, citizenship is active.
38:35
It is not a passive right to passage or whatever.
38:39
As a citizen of society, that it's action and being active.
38:44
Absolutely. And actions mean something.
38:47
Actions do mean something.
38:49
All right. I'm gonna ask you one last question to end:
38:53
You've spent this time and years studying immigration through
38:59
the lens of psychological science,
39:01
but you've also lived close to the realities behind the data.
39:06
So when you look beyond the statistics and research findings and your evaluations,
39:12
you know, as a professional, what human story do you want people
39:17
to understand about immigration today?
39:20
That's a great question, Debra.
39:22
There's so many stories. You know,
39:24
I shared several with you and your audience today.
39:28
One thing I do want to highlight is that actions mean something,
39:33
right? That we, you know, talked about moments ago.
39:36
The story of advocacy
39:40
is something that
39:41
I do want to share as well with you and your audience today.
39:45
Because advocacy is so important,
39:48
especially during these crises that we are dealing with.
39:52
You know, going with your local community partners,
39:56
your local churches,
39:57
~ volunteering with different associations,
40:01
calling your elected officials,
40:03
and sharing your voice, sharing your own story to people that
40:08
can change the policies and the laws is so important.
40:14
want to empower your audience to share their stories and how it's impacting their
40:19
communities, how it's impacting
40:22
their families and themselves,
40:25
~ because the more stories that are conveyed to people that
40:31
can make a difference, ~ like elected officials,
40:34
right? Whether it's our city commissioners,
40:38
our mayors, our state representatives,
40:42
folks in Congress, right? And I know that
40:45
we all have stories, too, ~ is so important because that elevates,
40:50
right? That elevates that advocacy into actions that we talked about,
40:55
Debra, and that can make a difference.
40:57
And we're in dire need of change,
41:01
of a reform of this system of immigration because of
41:07
the blatant policies that are causing this type of abuse
41:13
and turmoil and distress in our communities.
41:17
And we are witnessing that. And I think the more stories that we share
41:23
to those elected officials is one example of how we can make
41:27
a difference in advocating, right?
41:29
Yeah. I mean, today's conversation reminds us that immigration
41:34
is more than headlines or policy discussions,
41:38
but really at the heart of it are real people,
41:42
families, communities, resilience and the well-being of our society.
41:48
And I just wanna sincerely thank you,
41:51
Dr. Alfonso Mercado,
41:53
for joining us today, but also for all the work that you're doing because
41:59
I know how very, very important and critical it is.
42:05
So thank you so much for being here today.
42:08
Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to share this kind of work
42:13
and shed light into the science of psychology and immigration.
42:17
And to our listeners, thank you as always for joining us.
42:22
Remember that wellness is a journey,
42:24
not a destination. Please take good care of yourself and one another.