UC Santa Barbara

Researchers interested in understanding the perspectives of U.S. minoritized parents of children with special needs often recruit participants based only on their ethnicity (e.g., Zuckerman et al., 2015; Jegatheesan, 2011; Chiang, 2014). However, this strategy masks the additional, unique challenges of minoritized parents who immigrated to the U.S., leading to potential biases in findings. Such a concern is supported by researchers who have observed significant social-political differences between immigrant and native-born parents from ethnically minoritized groups (Berry et al., 2006; Fernandez et al., 2018;). In addition, combining acculturating and domestic minoritized groups based on race may be misleading as critical characteristics, like ethnic subgroup, socioeconomic position, and duration of residence, are often rendered invisible (Song et al., 2012; Bornstein, 2017). Moreover, there has been little research examining immigrant families' experiences using a critical framework related to capital theories to date; such a dearth in research is particularly concerning given that foreign-born immigrants make up 13.6% percent of the total U.S. population (U.S. Census Bureau, 2021). A two-study critical approach is applied in this research: the first study is a systematic review that adopts a quantitative perspective synthesizing studies that have reported the relationship between variables of immigrant or minority parents and their choices of services; the second study employs qualitative methods to delve into service-related perceptions, offering qualitative insights into immigrant parents' experiences, which is grounded on the notion of social status and power relations (Bourdieu, 1986) in order to explore the subjective experiences of social structures that immigrant parents must navigate when advocating for their children with special needs. The findings of this research offer new insights into the intricate interplay of cultural, social, and structural factors influencing immigrant parents' engagement with the special education system. These insights extend beyond ASD, informing culturally responsive policies and practices for parents of children with various special needs. The research underscores the necessity of empirical evidence to support culturally responsive policies and practices, urging researchers to incorporate variables identified in the study into parent-school interaction research. Educator training is advocated, alongside the development of culturally sensitive special education services that acknowledge the complexity of cultural issues.