Immigrant & Refugee
Kentucky is the ninth fastest growing state for the foreign-born population. Children in immigrant families comprise approximately five percent of the state’s total child population and growing. There is currently a lack of research, data and voice to give context to immigrant and refugee families’ experiences in the Commonwealth.
The term “children in immigrant families” includes:
- Foreign-born children, regardless of immigration or refugee status;
- Adopted foreign-born children; and
- U.S.-born citizen children of foreign-born parent(s).
Current Initiatives
Kentucky Youth Advocates is conducting research to establish baseline data in terms of immigration patterns, emerging needs and policy implications for Kentucky.
- Issue Briefs on Kentucky Children in Immigrant Families. Kentucky Youth Advocates, in partnership with the Annie E. Casey Foundation, presents a series of four issue briefs in 2008 highlighting the intersections of children in immigrant families well-being.
Ensuring a Healthy Start: Prenatal Care and Birth Outcomes among Newborn Kentuckians. This first issue brief includes data on access to prenatal care, rates of low-weight and preterm births, and solutions to improve access to quality care. Data comparisons are made between Kentucky births to U.S.-born mothers and Kentucky births to mothers born outside the U.S.
Issue Brief | Press Release | Press Release (Spanish)
- New Voices from the Bluegrass: A Portrait of Kentucky’s Children in Immigrant Families. Kentucky Youth Advocates, in partnership with the Annie E. Casey Foundation, released the first statewide portrait of children in immigrant families. The study offers a glimpse into the unique challenges, opportunities, and personal experiences that families in Kentucky face in regards to health care access, education, and community integration.
Report | Executive Summary | Press Release | Executive Summary (Spanish) | Press Release (Spanish)
- Eyes on Our New Hometown: Photographic Perspectives from Louisville’s Immigrant Youth. With the support of a Louisville Metro Office of Youth Development grant, Kentucky Youth Advocates engaged twelve immigrant youth in Louisville in a youth voices project. See Photos
- Immigrant and Refugee Rights Advocacy Day at the Capitol. Immigrants, refugees, and advocates from across the Commonwealth gathered at the Capitol on February 26, 2008 for Kentucky’s second annual Immigrant and Refugee Rights Advocacy Day. This advocacy day is organized by the Kentucky Domestic Violence Association, the Kentucky Equal Justice Center, Kentucky Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and KYA. Check out the day's sponors listed on the press release and read the article in the Courier-Journal. Thank you to all participants and sponsors for making this year a success!
Learn More
National Resources
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Annie E. Casey Foundation, Special Interest Area on Immigrant and Refugee Families. Resources that address access to services, encourage existing family strengths and support healthy social and economic integration.
- Bridging Refugee Youth & Children's Services. Offers a wealth of national research, resources and best practices for working with immigrant and refugee children.
Local Resources
- Read A Profile of the Foreign-born in the Louisville Metropolitan Areawritten by the Urban Institute with the Louisville Office of International Affairs.
- Migrant Network Coalition of Lexington. A broad-based coalition of public and private organizations and individuals networking to meet the wide range of needs of Latino and immigrant communities in Kentucky. State Language Accessibility information and resources are also available.
- Hispanic/Latino Coalition of Louisville. A non-profit organization established in 1998 to provide a voice to the growing and increasingly diverse Hispanic Latino population in the Louisville Metro area through education, outreach, advocacy, and event sponsorship.
- Kentucky Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. A grassroots educational and advocacy organization composed of individuals and organizations from around the state of Kentucky, and is dediated to promoting and defending the rights of all immigrants and refugees at the local, state, and federal levels.
- Kentucky Commission on Human Rights. Links, forms and resources in English and Spanish. Includes a bilingual guide on immigrant rights.
- Kentucky Refugee Ministries. Authorized by the U.S. Department of State to assist refugees who have been legally admitted to the United States.
- University of Louisville Latin American Studies Program. Features a resource list of some local outreach services in Kentucky.