‘Sentí que Alguien Murió’ (‘I felt someone died’): Ambiguous loss in the face of parental deportation

Abstract

Over 16 million people in the United States belong to a mixed-status family in which at least one member of their household is undocumented. The current study will explore adult reflections on childhood experiences of parental deportation in order to elucidate their meaning of the loss and if their experiences resemble an ambiguous loss. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was utilized to analyse in-depth retrospective meaning-making narratives of adult children who lost a parent to deportation. Findings indicate that the children of detained or deported parents experienced difficulty not knowing what was happening, believed their parents would return, and noted family practices that they found to be helpful or unhelpful in processing their loss.