Sociology

Terrorism has tremendously changed the geopolitical complexion of the world today.  This new perspective has been particularly shaped by the 911 attack, which did not only cripple business activities but also claimed lives. Generally, terrorist attacks have impacted the manner in which business is conducted on the global scale, resulting into numerous policy measures that have amongst other things raised the cost of doing business. These effects have in turn trickled down to families, disrupting their financial status, social and even psychological stability. This discourse focuses on the impact of the 911 attack on U.S families in the three dimension aforementioned.

The Social Consequences of the 911 on U.S. Families
Most terrorist attacks, the 911 inclusive, are perpetrated by a group of people who are ostensibly fighting for a cause with the main intent of putting across a political message. In the places where these attacks are carried out, the people who bear anything in common with the terrorists in terms of religion or ethnic backgrounds, are normally sidelined with the fear that they could be terrorist themselves or they could be supporters of such acts of aggression.

This is one of the social challenges that immigrant families in America faced after the 911 attack, most of them being those of Arabs and Muslim descent. According to Kaushal, Kaestner and Reimer (2003), ever since the 911 attacks, a growing number of Arabs and Muslims living in the United States have become victims of hate crimes and ethnic and religious profiling. For instance, after the attacks the government issued the special registration order, which required nonimmigrant men aged 16 years or above from countries with predominantly Muslim or Arab populations to register with the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services. Tirman (2006) further notes that Muslims in America, about equally from South Asia, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and North Africa were targeted along with their institutions and, several hundreds of men were detained for months or longer without being charged with crimes and many were deported for minor infractions.

Subsequently, immigrant families in America had to do with missing male members, who were in detention or either deported. They also had to contend with the distrust that they received from their neighbors which curtailed their freedom of association. These families still face these challenge even up to date, even though not in the harshest form as it was immediately after the 911 attacks.

The disruption of family structure did not only affect immigrant families but also families of Native Americans whose members were victims of the attacks. This disruption in turn caused family instability, as the once independent families now became dependent on friends and relatives. Bruton (2008) points out that, nearly 3,000 children under the age of 18 lost a parent to 911. Some have thus ended up growing in single-parent families whilst others have been brought up by non-governmental organizations, thereby lacking socialization processes that the family life instills in children.  

Psychological Effects on Family
The children who lost members of their family to the 911 attack have constantly been struggling to reconstruct their lives without their parent(s) andor loved ones. Worse hit are children who had firsthand experience of the attacks and survived for they have had to deal with flashbacks, nightmares andor survivors guilt. (Smith and Reynolds, 2002)

A recent study indicated that rate of psychiatric disorders is more than double the norm amongst children who lost loved ones in the 911 attack. The research conducted by Weill Cornell Medical College in New York targeted 5 children who were directly affected by the attacks. The two year study that ended in 2007 revealed that 50 percent of those children were displaying signs of anxiety disorders, while a third had symptoms of  posttraumatic stress disorder. Apart from that, 27 percent of the bereaved children exhibited symptoms of separation anxiety, while 14 percent had a major depressive disorder. (Bruton, 2008)
One of the contributing factors to this, as attested by families of U.S. victims, the support from relatives has waned or even stopped completely as time passes by. A survey of 110 families carried out by the World Trade Center Family Center established that nearly a quarter of those families were receiving little or no support from family and friends (Bruton, 2008). The drastic exit of breadwinners through deaths, detention and deportation or their physical incapacitation as a result of the attacks left families dependant on relatives and well-wishers. This has put a strain on the relationship between these dependent families and their relatives, since as time goes by while their dependence still persists out of economic fatigue relatives have withdrawn their support. With the apparent abandonment of these dependent families, their members suffer depression and may result into drug abuse.

The Economic Impact of the 911 on Families
Both the social and psychological consequences that came with the 91 attack are somewhat linked to economic destabilization of the affected American families. The economic aspect was brought about by the physical incapacitation or deaths of family bread winners and as aforementioned, these families became economically dependent on their relatives and well-wishers. As Makinen (2002) observed, the shock that the attacks sent to the economy resulted in layoff particularly by companies that were directly affected (p. 6). Therefore, the loss of employment didnt only affect the family of the victims but also the employees of the businesses that were targeted in the attacks.

In the same vein, immigrants particularly those of Arab and Muslim descent faced discrimination at their work place, which resulted into job loses. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission received about 488 complaints of 911  related employment discrimination, out of which 301 involved persons who were fired from jobs (Kaushal et al., 2003). In this way, these families have become economically dependent.

The acts of terrorism have consequences that spread beyond borders, touching on almost all facets of life. However, when they do occur, the families in the target locations bear the hugest lost, socially, economically and even psychologically as explored herein.