The Experience of Spanish Speakers
In order to better understand the experience of Spanish speaking Latin American immigrants, a specific focus group was hosted for direct service providers which was facilitated in Spanish. The session was attended by six women. Several key themes emerged from the discussion, which are illustrated in the graph below.
Key Takeaways
The most common theme amongst the group was a strong desire and commitment to give back to their communities. The women expressed a deep passion and love for community service and showed pride in their work. They emphasized the importance of language and being able to provide services in their native tongues. They also emphasized a need for cultural brokerage in order to build trust, engagement, and meaningful connections with families. Despite this dedication, participants also reported widespread exploitations and systemic inequities in the workplace.
Double the Work, Same Pay
Many felt that it has become normalized for immigrants to perform significantly more work for the same, or even lower, pay than their peers. They expressed feeling like their contributions are undervalued and that they are rarely recognized for their efforts.
“Regardless of not getting a good salary, the feeling that I put a small part for the child to be connected to a particular resource, or for the family or the mother to learn something new, is very beautiful.”
Fear of Retaliation
Participants shared that they are often afraid to request fair compensation, benefits, or opportunities for advancement due to fear of losing their jobs. Asking for support is often met with dismissal or termination.
“Sometimes I’m disheartened, things change, sometimes we don’t get paid more and we get assigned more work, it gets harder in the processes because all the systems are changing, and requirements change.”
Stuck in Bilingual Roles
Being bilingual is both a strength and a barrier. Many have been kept in the same roles for years simply because their language skills are indispensable, but they are not offered opportunities to grow or move up within their organizations.
Burnout
Long hours, working beyond regular business times, and a lack of compensation for extra work have led to widespread burnout. Participants regularly work beyond an 8 hour day and take work home without being compensated for that time. There is a feeling that failure to do this extra work could jeopardize their employment.
“It would be good to get the support from agencies for people who wants to grow professionally or to continue with training because there are some positions that require certain level of education and maybe at the State level there could be a process to validate the person knowledge.”
Lack of Benefits and Security
Most participants are in low-wage jobs without benefits, and fear asking for better conditions. They described a workplace culture where exploitation feels systemic and unavoidable.
“I needed to find my value. I would go to my supervisor and share with them that I couldn’t see 25- 26 families. They say they could give me an increase in pay, but the change never came after months.”
Workforce Shortage and Overextension
Due to the shortage of staff, providers are forced to stretch their roles, increasing their workload and stress. The fear of being replaced creates a pressure to overextend themselves and silently accept unfair conditions.
Opportunities for Action
The group recognized that their experiences were common across different organizations and job types. Therefore, structural changes are needed across the IECMH field as a whole. The group brainstormed the following solutions:
Administrators can conduct market rate salary reviews for all positions within the organization annually. Set salary targets for each position and include caps for highest paid employees compared to lowest, in order to ensure employees are getting equal pay for equal work.
Offer reflective supervision in Spanish and other native languages.
Administrators should ensure caseloads are distributed fairly.
Provide career advancement opportunities and pathways. Ensure staff have necessary resources to engage in IECMH professional development, including agency paid training, provider release time, and supervision support.