Crossroads: The Psychology of Immigration in the New Century

a Metadisciplinary reflection
Psychology needs to consider an important metadisciplinary
issue. While the field’s imperative to look to evidence in
guiding decisions for practice and policy is commendable,
when it comes to immigration, psychologists must pause and
ask a series of fundamental questions:
• What is the nature of our evidence when we have,
by and large, failed to adequately consider the rapidly
growing immigrant population over recent decades?
• What is the nature of our evidence when we have
not framed research questions with the immigrant
population in mind?
• What is the nature of our evidence when the research
questions do not carefully delineate exactly who is and
is not included within that population?
• What is the nature of our evidence when many of our
research tools are not culturally sensitive?
• What are the trade-offs when quality data are simply
unavailable to make what are otherwise ethically urgent
and clear recommendations?
To date, the answer is that “evidence” is limited in scope
and requires cautious interpretation. It is urgent that
psychologists make immigrant-origin populations a key
population in psychological research agendas at every phase
of development. Only in so doing will the field discover the
kinds of meaningful findings needed to inform practice and
policy.
Considerations for the Field
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