In the “Best Interest” of Immigrant and Refugee Children: Deliberating on their Unique Circumstances

Each year, state juvenile courts provide thousands of im-migrant and refugee children with access to consistent and reliable caregiving and a stable environment. To ex-amine how courts interpret "the best interests " of immi-grant and refugee children, this article examines 24 cases in courts across the United States, which indicate they use a territorial approach when evaluating the best inter-ests standard. Although legal status was not an issue, many related factors were. Consequently, the courts re-stricted immigrant parents ' rights in caring, guiding, and visiting their children; increased the risk of wrongfully terminating parental rights; and intensified the unpre-dictability of immigrant and refugee children's welfare in the long run. This article suggests an approach that en-courages communication between social workers and the courts to address the special needs and circumstances of immigrant and refugee children on three key topics: the material and moral welfare of the child, and social wel-fare for immigrant and refugee families