Doing Community and Institutionally Engaged Work and Promoting Immigrant Well-being While Building a Research Career

Abstract

This article offers reflections on doing community and publicly engaged research and scholarly work that promotes immigrant well-being while developing a research career in academic institutions which do not usually recognize or reward such work. I draw on my own career (as the editors asked me to do), and hope the advice or examples are helpful, especially to younger scholars. I write as a scholar who was not from the immigrant communities with which he worked, and who believes scholars should help create a society that respects the rights, dignity, and well-being of its members, especially immigrant families. I applaud the Im/migrant Well-being Scholar Collaborative initiative’s (IWSC or Collaborative) focus on immigrant well-being, which affirms not only work that seeks to make structural or policy change or to change debates (common foci of academic analysis), but also work that directly helps others, builds community capacity, or mentors broadly. I have tried to both promote well-being and to fight injustice and inequality.