The Impact of Toxic Stress on Refugee Children: Implications for the Asylum Process

Abstract

Every day, refugees seeking asylum in the United States must find a way to present their stories in a fact-based, timeline-coherent, rational, and especially a consistent way. Persons traumatized by the very circumstances that would most qualify them to seek asylum can be the least capable of presenting their stories in this manner. The post- and sometimes present-traumatic stress that refugees suffer can impair their memories by erasing or distorting key facts. Even without memory impairments, the necessary recounting of their trauma narrative in the course of the asylum process is remarkably difficult and often re-traumatizing. These difficulties are especially acute for children and minors. The resulting symptoms they often experience and manifest, including anxiety, memory loss, impaired executive function, and more, can put significant roadblocks in the way of their future protection in a safer and more secure environment. It is critical to understand and acknowledge the toxic stress experienced by many asylum-seeking children and minors before, during, and after migration because it negatively impacts their health, including cognitive and mental health, in ways that can directly interfere with their ability to meet the legal requirements of the asylum process. “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men” (Frederick Douglass, 1817-1895).