Children in the U.S. who are immigrants or first-generation immigrants face specific challenges that can add stress to an already fraught socio-political climate. Due to political campaigns driving hate toward immigrants, children have to manage seeing their ethnic group bashed in the media.

A play therapist can offer a space for children who are confused about a number of issues: the reasons they left their homes, the way things are in their new home, family secrets about being undocumented, many transitions and changes in their lives, and intergenerational assimilation challenges in families. Awareness of the variations in an immigrant’s experiences is the first step to being able to offer safe spaces for immigrant families in play therapy.

Beyond anti-immigrant sentiments, the experience of immigration can have a lot of implications for different groups and........

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