Caitlin Katsiaficas
Experts & Staff
Caitlin Katsiaficas
Associate Policy Analyst
Caitlin Katsiaficas is an Associate Policy Analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, where she works with the National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy. Her research focuses on policies and practices that support the successful integration of immigrant and refugee families.
Prior to joining MPI, she conducted research on European Union migration policy for Bridging Europe and worked at the International Rescue Committee and George Washington University’s Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies. She also interned at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement, where she wrote a strategy paper on strengthening cooperation with other government agencies to assist resettled refugees and service providers, and provided case management support to refugees and asylum seekers in the Refugee Services Program in Portland, Maine.
Ms. Katsiaficas holds an MA and BA (summa cum laude) in international affairs from George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs, where she focused on conflict, migration, and development. She also studied in Belgium and Turkey.
Recent Activity
Home visiting programs for young families are growing in popularity across the United States, and have demonstrated their effectiveness in supporting maternal health and child well-being. At the same time, more infants and toddlers are growing up in immigrant families and households where a language other than English is spoken. Why then are these children under-represented in these programs? This brief explores common barriers, ways to address them, and why it is important to do so.
The first years of a child’s life are a time of immense growth, and exposure to trauma—if left unaddressed—can have significant, lifelong effects. This issue brief examines how young children of refugees and other immigrants may be affected by trauma, and what early childhood education and care programs, health-care providers, and others can do to mitigate its adverse effects.
Dual Language Learners (DLLs) are a growing segment of the Minnesota young child population, and a particularly "superdiverse" one with myriad origins, cultures, and languages—a new reality other states and communities will face. Drawing on interviews with policymakers and service providers, as well as analysis of census data, this report examines what this incredible diversity means for the state’s early childhood policies and programs.
With many young children among the refugees and asylum seekers arriving in Europe and North America in recent years, policymakers and service providers are grappling with the task of designing and scaling up critical early childhood services. This report examines the approaches taken in nine key host countries, highlighting common challenges and promising practices.
As the share of U.S. children under age 8 who are Dual Language Learners (DLLs) increases, state policies have an important role to play in ensuring all young learners are able to get their education off to a good start. These fact sheets compare key characteristics of DLLs and their peers nationwide and in 30 states, and identify state policies that support equitable access to high-quality early childhood education and care programs.
These fact sheets provide a sociodemographic sketch of parents with children ages 0 to 8 in the 30 states with the largest number of immigrant families, offering data and analysis of some of the key parental characteristics to help stakeholders identify populations that could be targets for early childhood and parent-focused programs working to improve child and parent outcomes.
Smugglers and migrants adapted their paths in light of changing conditions in 2016, including the construction of walls and closure of borders. Cuban and Haitian migrants increasingly chose to make their way to the United States through South and Central America rather than by sea. Meanwhile, migrant flows to Europe have splintered into a wider range of routes, seeking new openings through the Western Balkans.
Two-generation programs that weave together early childhood learning with adult-focused programs hold great potential to break cycles of intergenerational poverty for low-income parents with young children. Little research has been done on how these programs succeed with immigrant families. This report studies select programs and offers analysis of the sociodemographic characteristics of U.S. parents with young children.