NEW DIRECTIONS FOR YOUTH DEVELOPMENT, NO. 100, WINTER 2003 © WILEY PERIODICALS, INC. 15 This introductory chapter uses a detailed case study to illustrate the interconnection of multiple social influences on one particular youth’s path of migra- tion. It further identifies some of the major influ- ences on immigrant youth development, including the stresses of migration, separations and reunifi- cations, changing networks of relations, poverty and segregation, and identity formation. 1 The social worlds of immigrant youth Carola Suárez-Orozco, Irina L. G. Todorova DARIO is an adolescent of short stature with curly dark hair. 1 Always well groomed, he has big dark eyes, a chipped tooth, and a scar that dominates his face. He speaks in a raspy, monotone voice, rarely making eye contact. His manner is one of defiance and street savvy well beyond his years. Dario arrived in the western United States from Central Amer- ica at the age of ten. In a sad tale, relentlessly repeated, through the next few years he was fated to relive the trauma of the initial sepa- ration over and over again. He was first separated from his father when his parents divorced, followed by separation from his mother when she immigrated. Eight years later he left behind his beloved caretaking aunt to join his mother in the United States. This series of departures created ongoing confusion about loved ones and why they always disappear.