Denver Seminary

In my previous blog, I offered a section adapted from a new book: Elizabeth Conde-Frazier, Listen to the Children: Conversations with Immigrant Families (Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press, 2011). Here I would like to give you more information about the book. You might find Listen to the Children to be a helpful resource.

This is not a long book, by any means. It is only about 70 pages. One of the things that makes this publication unique is that the volume also has the Spanish translation: the back cover, turned around, is the cover for the Spanish edition (Escuchemos a los niños: Conversaciones con familias inmigrantes). What a fascinating concept!

In addition to an Introduction and Conclusion, the book has seven chapters:

1. This chapter deals with the tough decision that some family members, such as a father or mother, make to come undocumented to the U.S. to find work in order to provide a better life for their families in their home country.
2. This chapter presents the challenge of reuniting those parents with their children, who have been taken care of by other family caregivers.
3. The difficulties in adjusting the children have to a different and strange environment.
4. The need for immigrant children to stay in school, even with so many factors working against them.
5. The stigmas and fears that undocumented children face.
6. The role that churches can play in helping immigrant children accommodate themselves to their new context.
7. The effect of immigration enforcement raids and the deportation of parents on the children.

Every chapter begins with a verse from the Bible, and in each chapter Conde-Frazier weaves together stories of immigrant families and education and child development theory to make her points. The book works in two directions. On the one hand, it serves to introduce majority culture readers to the world of the children of undocumented immigrant families; for the immigrant the book provides advice and direction (in Spanish!) concerning the challenges they will face in this new context.

Listen to the Children is a quick read, but it is well worth the time. It would be a wonderful resource for churches and schools, as well as for those who are getting to know immigrant families.