Abstract
Given the importance of civic engagement to the well-being of immigrants and refugees and their communities, the goal of the current study was to investigate civic attitudes among immigrants and refugees from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). First, the researcher examined predictors of civic attitudes. Second, the mediating effect of attitudes between the potential predictors (i.e., gender, health status, English proficiency, and the U.S. length of stay) and level of civic engagement was investigated. The researcher recruited 145 respondents to complete online and paper-based surveys. Using linear regression models, the results show that health and English language proficiency significantly predict civic attitudes among this group. Attitudes also mediated between health status and level of civic engagement. This study provides some implications for social work, resettlement programs, health policies, and civic organizations that can be beneficial for the target group as well as for the host communities.
Highlights
Given the importance of civic engagement to the well-being of immigrants and refugees and their communities, the goal of the current study was to investigate civic attitudes among immigrants and refugees from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
One hundred and forty-five MENA immigrants and refugees participated in this study
This study shows that refugees and immigrants from the MENA region are not isolated and have high capability to contribute to their communities
Summary
Given the importance of civic engagement to the well-being of immigrants and refugees and their communities, the goal of the current study was to investigate civic attitudes among immigrants and refugees from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). This study provides some implications for social work, resettlement programs, health policies, and civic organizations that can be beneficial for the target group as well as for the host communities. Taking into account its benefits for individuals and societies, studying civic engagement among different groups is valuable and can provide important implications for the social work profession. In this vein, this research was interested in immigrants and refugees living in the U.S refugees and immigrants leave their home country for different reasons and have different lived experiences, they still have much in common in terms of culture, religious beliefs, history, language, and some post-migration experiences such as under-employment, language barriers, and discrimination (Aroian et al, 2008). Considering the rise of negative public perceptions regarding Muslims (Abu-Ras, 2013; Emami, 2018; Vergani et al, 2017), examining civic engagement among this group is imperative especially given the limited number of studies with this group (Makki Alamdari, 2017; Makki Alamdari & Bishop, 2020)
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