Members Of Immigrant Communities Research Articles

Adminigration: City-Level Governance of Immigrant Community Members

The concept of adminigration provides a much-needed lens in theorizing immigration enforcement, citizenship, and urban geographies. We define adminigration as the governance of immigrant community members through city-level policies and programs, whether or not these explicitly focus on immigrants. Our focus on adminigration involves three theoretical interventions: (1) bridging literature on immigrant bureaucratic incorporation and crimmigration to situate city-level administrative practices within immigration policymaking; (2) a focus on how localized definitions of membership, as enacted by cities, produce citizenship, legality, and illegality, and (3) the argument that these practices play out in space, resulting in variegated urban landscapes that are better characterized as a network than a level. We develop these points through a review of the literature on bureaucratic incorporation, crimmigration, citizenship, and the spatialization of immigration policymaking. To illustrate the utility of this framework, we conclude with a case study of adminigration in a California city that we call “Mayville.”

Visual Translation, Design, and Language Justice: a Case Study from North Central Florida

Purpose: This article presents a case study of how a bilingual technical communicator and a bilingual visual designer collaborated to visualize stories of language access in North Central Florida. Method: We combined participatory methods used in technical communication (Agboka, 2013; Rose and Cardinal, 2018) with interviews and design methods (Gonzalez Viveros et al., 2020) from both technical communication and visual design. The goal of the study was to document the languages spoken by immigrant community members in North Central Florida, to interview immigrant community members about their languages, and to transform interview data into visual designs that could inspire conversation about language justice in our community. Results: By transforming interview data into visual designs (i. e., collages), we were able to understand the complexity that language plays in the lives of multilingual communities, gaining insights into both the challenges and the advantages of speaking multiple languages as immigrants in North Central Florida. Conclusion: We encourage other technical communication and design researchers to implement visual data approaches in their work, particularly when working with participants whose language histories span beyond white American Englishes. As technical communication continues expanding into more global contexts and as language diversity continues to be a reality in contemporary technical communication work, interdisciplinary collaborations among technical communicators, translators, and designers, will continue to gain importance and impact, particularly in community- driven projects.

"Which Clinic? Pre-Covid or Post-Covid?": Immigration Policy Uncertainty, Immigrant Serving Organization, and the Response to COVID-19.

BackgroundThis article examines how immigration policy uncertainty during the Trump presidency shaped how immigrant serving organizations (ISOs) responded to the needs of immigrant community members in the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsWe draw on semi-structured interviews conducted over the summer of 2020 with 31 directors and program coordinators of ISOs and health clinics in three southern states (KY, NC, SC).ResultsResponding to anti-immigrant policies laid the groundwork for organizations to respond quickly and nimbly to COVID-19 related upheavals. However, organizational flexibility may signal organizational precarity, especially given the long-term impacts of both Trump administration immigration policies and the COVID-19 pandemic.DiscussionOur findings underline how ISOs facilitate access to health and social services for immigrant families. Our findings suggest that this organizational adaptability may signal a relationship between organizational precarity and immigration policy uncertainty that could have an impact well beyond the pandemic.

Patient-Identified Solutions to Primary Care Access Barriers in Canada: The Viewpoints of Nepalese Immigrant Community Members.

Accessing healthcare for immigrants in Canada is complicated by many difficulties. With the continued and upward trend of immigration to Canada, it is crucial to identify the solutions to the barriers from the perspectives of different immigrant communities as they encounter them including the relatively smaller and less studied population groups of immigrants. As such, Nepalese immigrants in Canada are a South Asian ethnic group who have their own distinct language, culture, and socio-economic backgrounds, however, their experience with accessing healthcare in Canada is scarce in the literature. We conducted 12 focus group discussions with first-generation Nepalese immigrants who had experiences with primary care use in Canada. Informed consent and demographic information were obtained before each focus group discussion. The verbatim transcription of the focus groups was analyzed using thematic analysis. The participants expressed a range of potential solutions to overcome the barriers, which we presented using the socio-ecological framework into 4 different levels. This includes individual-, community-, service provider-, and government/policy-levels. Individual-level actions included improving self-awareness and knowledge of health in general and navigating the healthcare system and proactively improving the language skills and assimilating into the Canadian culture. Examples of community-level actions included community events to share health information with immigrants, health literacy programs, and driving/carpooling to clinics or hospitals. Actions at the service provider level were mainly focused on enhancing communications, cultural competency training for providers, and ensuring to hire primary care workforce representing various ethnocultural backgrounds. Overall, focus group participants believed that the provincial and federal government, as appropriate, should increase support for dental and vision care support and take actions to increase the healthcare capacity, particularly by employing internationally graduated health professionals. Access to primary care is essential for the health of immigrant populations in Canada. Individuals, community organizations, health service providers, and governments need to work both individually and collaboratively to improve immigrants' primary care access.

“We can talk to you, you’re less radical”: reflexivity and developing answerability

This autoethnographic paper discusses the complex methodological issues of a Latina scholar activist conducting research about the undocumented in a law enforcement context in the presence of power elites. She navigates her purpose and perceived identities in withholding some identities for the purpose of accessing data. She chronicles her fieldwork, noting her cultural intuition approach, reflecting on her navigation of answerability to her immigrant community members as well as to traditional norms of academic colonizing fieldwork that serve the elite higher education institutions. She examines the possibility of maintaining integrity to her call of solidarity, advocacy, and activism en familia, to her community members and values.

Latino-to-Latino: Promotores' Beliefs on Engaging Latino Participants in Autism Research.

In Latino(a) communities, promotores de salud (i.e., community health workers; promotores) are becoming critical participants in prevention, health promotion, and the delivery of health care. Although involving culturally diverse participants in research is a national priority, recruitment and retention of research participants from these groups is challenging. Therefore, there is an increased need to identify strategies for successful recruitment of participants from underrepresented minority backgrounds. Our overall study purpose was to gain promotores' perspectives on recruiting Latino(a) immigrant community members for an intervention study on autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The goal of this paper is to explore insider promotores' views on the barriers and facilitators to research participation in the Latino(a) community and learn strategies for recruiting Latino(a) participants in a nontraditional destination city. We conducted qualitative focus groups with an established group of promotores known as Latinos Unidos por la Salud (LU-Salud), who were members of a community-academic research team. Fifteen LU-Salud promotores participated in the focus groups. Focus group interviews were analyzed by using Leininger's data analysis enabler. These results will inform our partnerships with promotores and Latino(a) neighborhood agencies to increase recruitment for community-based research on promoting awareness of ASD among Latino(a) families. Promotores were credible community members able to gain community trust and committed to improving the health and well-being of their Latino(a) community, including involving them in research. Latino(a) research involvement meant facilitating community members' engagement to overcome barriers of distrust around legal and health care systems. Challenges included legal uncertainties, language and literacy barriers, health knowledge, and economic hardship. Promotores also voiced the diversity of cultural practices (subcultures) within the Latino(a) culture that influenced: (1) research engagement, (2) guidance from promotores, (3) immersion in the Latino(a) community, and (4) health and well-being. Experienced promotores, who are living in a nontraditional migration area, believe the primary facilitator to increasing research involvement is Latino(a)-to-Latino(a) recruitment. These findings will aid in building partnerships to recruit participants for future studies that promote early recognition of ASD in the Latino(a) community.

Immigrant Sanctuary Policies and Crime-Reporting Behavior: A Multilevel Analysis of Reports of Crime Victimization to Law Enforcement, 1980 to 2004

Sanctuary jurisdictions have existed in the United States since the 1980s. They have recently reentered U.S. politics and engendered contentious debates regarding their legality and influence on public safety. Critics argue that sanctuary jurisdictions create conditions that threaten local communities by impeding federal immigration enforcement efforts. Proponents maintain that the policies improve public safety by fostering institutional trust among immigrant communities and by increasing the willingness of immigrant community members to notify the police after they are victimized. In this study, we situate expectations from the immigrant sanctuary literature within a multilevel, contextualized help-seeking framework to assess how crime-reporting behavior varies across immigrant sanctuary contexts. We find that Latinos are more likely to report violent crime victimization to law enforcement after sanctuary policies have been adopted within their metropolitan areas of residence. We argue that social policy contexts can shift the nature of help-seeking experiences and eliminate barriers that undermine crime victims’ willingness to mobilize the law. Overall, this study highlights the unique role social policy contexts can serve in structuring victims’ help-seeking decisions.

Overcoming the Challenges Faced by Immigrant Populations While Accessing Primary Care: Potential Solution-oriented Actions Advocated by the Bangladeshi-Canadian Community.

Introduction:Immigrants continue to face significant challenges in accessing primary healthcare (PHC) that often negatively impact their health. The present research aims to capture the perspectives of immigrants to identify potential approaches to enhance PHC access for this group.Methods:Focus group discussions (FGDs) were conducted among a sample of first-generation Bangladeshi immigrants who had experience with PHC in Canada. A total of 13 FGDs (7 among women, 6 among men) were conducted with 80 participants (women = 42, men = 38) in their preferred language, Bangla. We collected demographic information prior to each focus group and used descriptive statistics to identify the socio-demographic characteristics of participants. We applied thematic analysis to examine qualitative data to generate a list of themes of possible approaches to improve PHC access.Results:The focus group findings identified different levels of approaches to improve PHC access: individual-, community-, service provider-, and policy-level. Individual-level approaches included increased self-awareness of health and wellness and personal knowledge of cultural differences in healthcare services and improved communication skills. At the community level, supports for community members to access care included health education workshops, information sessions, and different support programs (eg, carpool services for senior members). Suggested service-level approaches included providers taking necessary steps to ensure an effective doctor-patient relationship with immigrants (eg, strategies to promote cultural competencies, hiring multicultural staff). FGD participants also raised the importance of government- or policy-level solutions to ensure high quality of care (eg, increased after-hour clinics and lab/diagnostic services).Conclusions:Although barriers to immigrants accessing healthcare are well documented in the literature, solutions to address them are under-researched. To improve healthcare access, physicians, community health centers, local health agencies, and public health units should collaborate with members of immigrant communities to identify appropriate interventions.

Exploring Knowledge, Prevention Methods, and Prevention Barriers of COVID-19 Among Somali, Karen, and Latinx Community Members in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.

Background:As the COVID-19 pandemic has unfolded, understanding the virus and necessary measures to prevent infection have evolved. While effective preventative measures for COVID-19 have been identified, there are also identifiable barriers to implementation.Objective:Explore the access to information, knowledge, and prevention methods and barriers of COVID-19 among Somali, Karen, and Latinx immigrant community members in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA through analysis of in-depth interviews.Methods:Data were collected through 32 interviews via phone, video conference on a computer, or in-person with Somali, Karen, and Latinx adults to understand the experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic in each group’s native language. All participants were over the age of 18, and identified as Somali, Karen, and Latinx refugee or immigrant. Interview protocol contained 9 main questions including probes. Data were analyzed through use of the qualitative analysis software, Atlas.ti using phenomenology.Results:A total of 32 adults were interviewed (Somali = 12, Karen = 10, and Latinx = 10). One-third were in person and the remainder were remote. The average age recorded was 37 years (range 20-66 years), 43.8% males and 56.3% females. Somali, Karen, and Latinx respondents consistently had accurate knowledge about COVID-19 and were attentive to finding trustworthy information. Information was available in Somali, Karen, and Latinx written language, although Karen elders who are not literate would benefit more from video messaging. Knowledge of preventive measures was consistent; however, barriers included access, working in front-line positions, and living in high density housing.Conclusion:Exploring the impact of COVID-19 on Somali, Karen, and Latinx community members in Minneapolis, MN is advantageous in removing identified barriers and disparities in health. The results of this study highlight the need for increased efforts to address barriers in the prevention of COVID-19, as well as future pandemics for immigrant and refugee populations.

Insurgent Collaboration

Scholarship regarding those who are categorized as undocumented can put sanctuary principles into practice in research settings. To do so, scholars can conduct research in collaboration with immigrant communities, reject essentializing terminology, develop modes of sociality that challenge exclusion, and document the unofficial forms of sanctuary devised by members of immigrant communities. This research model is grounded in principles of accompaniment that were followed by 1980s activists who offered sanctuary to those fleeing wars in Central America. Examples of research initiatives and educational programs that follow such principles are presented.

"Health in the English Language": A Partnership With the Alaska Literacy Program.

Background:Health literacy is an issue that is influenced by social determinants and improved by community-based initiatives. Enhancing health literacy can lead to patient engagement, appropriate use of health care, and improved health outcomes. Understanding the community stories by working with vulnerable populations, such as English language learners (ELL), can help inform other health literacy projects on how to enable ELL immigrants to be involved in their health care.Brief Description of Activity:“Health in the English Language” was an 8-week course based on the social view of health literacy that was created and taught by university students. This curriculum was implemented at the Alaska Literacy Program (ALP) during the summer of 2018 in Anchorage, Alaska. Course participants were adult ELL.Implementation:Throughout the summer, the course curriculum was adapted to fit students' needs. Course participants completed open-ended evaluations during the class, and feedback was obtained via interviews with leaders in the community and leaders at ALP. Community organizations were brought into the classroom using resource sheets and an end-of-course community health fair.Results:Student evaluations identified important themes of managing health care and medications, as well as learning new words. Feedback from ALP and community partners highlighted active teaching styles and how the course benefited the community. The results reflect the impact the course had on increasing student confidence, knowledge, and skills to interact with health care providers. The course created a culture that facilitated the ability of immigrant community members to access health resources. The feedback received demonstrated the importance of university students partnering with nonprofits to create effective health literacy programs that are community centered.Lessons learned:Similar programs can be replicated using community and university partnerships to address health literacy problems. [HLRP: Health Literacy Research and Practice. 2019;3(Suppl.):S79–S87.]Plain Language Summary:The course “Health in the English Language” was created to teach English and skills to understand health information to English language learners. The course leaders worked with community-based organizations. A variety of content, such as going to the doctor's office, reading medication labels, describing symptoms, and staying healthy, was included.

East African Perceptions of Barriers/Facilitators for Pediatric Clinical Research Participation and Development of the Inclusive Research Model

PurposeThis study sought to gain a greater understanding of perceptions related to barriers/facilitators for pediatric (ages 0–17) clinical research participation among East African immigrant community members. Design and MethodsCommunity leader interviews (n = 6) and focus groups with lay members (n = 16) from the three largest East African communities in the Seattle area (Eritrean, Ethiopian and Somali) were conducted. Discussions were semi-structured based on existing barrier/facilitator research and analyzed using directed content analysis to identify major themes. ResultsAnalysis revealed two novel barrier sub-themes: inadequate interpretation and translation of information even when services were available and a lack of adequate vocabulary in preferred languages. Participants also confirmed previously identified logistical barriers/facilitators (lack of knowledge regarding clinical research; time, cost, transportation, and child care challenges; providing incentives) and psychosocial barriers/facilitators (mistrust of research; cultural and/or religious differences; connecting benefits to the community; involving religious/community leaders or organizations and including community members on the research team; transparency in the research process; presenting results to the community) for clinical research participation among underrepresented groups. ConclusionPerceptions of barriers/facilitators for pediatric clinical research participation among East African immigrants identified two novel sub-themes and confirmed those previously described by other underrepresented communities. Practice ImplicationsTo facilitate more inclusive research participation, researchers, nurses and other health care providers might consider ensuring adequate time for discussion of the research study and process, engaging the community in the research process, employing lay reviews of translated materials and/or oral consent processes, and other strategies outlined in the Inclusive Research Model.

Perspectives of Community Co-Researchers About Group Dynamics and Equitable Partnership Within a Community-Academic Research Team.

Equitable partnership processes and group dynamics, including individual, relational, and structural factors, have been identified as key ingredients to successful community-based participatory research partnerships. The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the key aspects of group dynamics and partnership from the perspectives of community members serving as co-researchers. Semistructured, in-depth interviews were conducted with 15 Latino immigrant co-researchers from an intervention project with Latinos Unidos por la Salud (LU-Salud), a community research team composed of Latino immigrant community members and academic investigators working in a health research partnership. A deductive framework approach guided the interview process and qualitative data analysis. The LU-Salud co-researchers described relationships, personal growth, beliefs/identity motivation (individual dynamics), coexistence (relational dynamics), diversity, and power/resource sharing (structural dynamics) as key foundational aspects of the community-academic partnership. Building on existing CBPR and team science frameworks, these findings demonstrate that group dynamics and partnership processes are fundamental drivers of individual-level motivation and meaning making, which ultimately sustain efforts of community partners to engage with the research team and also contribute to the achievement of intended research outcomes.

Financial and emotional support in close personal ties among Central Asian migrant women in Russia

This study advances research on the role of personal networks as sources of financial and emotional support in immigrants’ close personal ties beyond the immediate family. Because resource scarcity experienced by members of immigrant communities is likely to disrupt normatively expected reciprocal support, we explored multi-level predictors of exchange processes with personal network members that involve (1) only receiving support, (2) only providing support, and (3) reciprocal support exchanges. We focus on an understudied case of Central Asian migrant women in the Russian Federation using a sample of 607 women from three ethnic groups—Kyrgyz, Tajik, Uzbek—who were surveyed in two large Russian cities-Nizhny Novgorod and Kazan. The survey collected information on respondents’ demographic, socioeconomic, and migration-related characteristics, as well as characteristics of up to five individuals with whom they had a close relationship. Multi-level multinomial regression analyses were used to account for the nested nature of the data. Our results revealed that closer social relationships (siblings and friends) and greater levels of resources (income and regularized legal status) at both ego and alter levels were positively related to providing, receiving, and reciprocally exchanging financial and emotional support. Egos were more likely to provide financial assistance to transnational alters, whereas they were more likely to engage in mutual exchanges of emotional support with their network members from other countries. Personal network size and density showed no relationship with support exchanges. These findings provide a nuanced picture of close personal ties as conduits for financial and emotional support in migrant communities in a major, yet understudied, migrant-receiving context.

Participatory Budgeting: Learning Civic Capacities Through Democratic Activity

This pilot study presents an ethnographic case study of Chicago’s 49th Ward Participatory Planning Budgeting Process (PPBP). This paper brings together the disciplines of Urban Planning and Learning Sciences, using a range of methodologies to examine the complexity of learning as it occurs in participatory planning. The study focuses specifically on the Latino immigrant community’s participation in the PPBP. This paper presents an analysis of a Spanish-language Assembly in the fall of 2010. Findings show ten emergent civic capacities and how they were learned or activated in the context of the Spanish assembly. Using a Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) framework, the paper explores both the cultural historical milieu of participants’ effects of participating in democratic activity and the mediational means of the civic capacities on participation. The findings raise questions about how Latino immigrant community members engage civically, and how identities of civic participation may form over time. Lastly, how are those in charge of the participatory planning process learning to adapt the environment in order to meet the participation needs of the community?

Latinos Unidos por la Salud: The Process of Developing an Immigrant Community Research Team

The tremendous Latino growth combined with the challenges of living in a nontraditional migration area make Latinos, particularly those who are undocumented, a “difficult-to-reach” and understudied population in research. We describe the development and practice of an immigrant community research team created to investigate and improve research quality regarding health-related needs, beliefs, and behaviors of recent Latino immigrants living in Cincinnati, Ohio. Our community research team, Latinos Unidos por la Salud (LUSalud), is composed of Latino immigrant community members and academic researchers working in a health research partnership. The community team members are considered “co-researchers” since LU-Salud was designed within a community-based participatory research framework where we engaged in shared decision making at each phase of the research process from design, data collection, and interpretation of findings to dissemination. The co-researcher approach promoted shared decision-making and community empowerment throughout the research process with our community members providing expertise about the “what” (Latino immigrant health-related beliefs and behaviors, questionnaire content, interpretation of data) and the “why” (to obtain perspectives from Latino immigrants who typically don’t engage with academics) and our academic members bringing expertise about the “how” (research design and methods, grant funding).

Immigrant Engagement in Participatory Budgeting in New York City

Participatory Budgeting (PB) is a welcome experiment in participatory democracy in New York City (NYC), one that could produce greater civic engagement of traditionally marginalized groups and more equitable resource distribution. By engaging immigrants, PB aims to affirm and elevate their voices, help develop their civic capacities, and promote their political participation and community empowerment. During the past four years, participation by immigrants (foreign-born residents) in New York City’s PB process (PBNYC) has steadily increased, growing from nineteen to twenty-eight percent of all PB voters. Yet, immigrant participation lags compared to their numbers, with great variation among PB districts. Using a mixed methods approach that incorporates surveys of and interviews with immigrant community members, staff at immigrant serving community-based organizations, and City Council staff, this article aims to parse out the logistical and affective barriers to participation immigrants face in PB districts and how PBNYC’s design attempts to circumvent said barriers and facilitate participation. Ultimately, our study reveals a complex mix of promising practices and structural constraints involved in working toward PB’s “inclusive” and “equitable” aims.

Contextualizing the Access to Health Services of Bangladeshi Immigrants through a Social Determinants of Health Lens: Qualitative Perspectives from Immigrant Community Members and Service Providers in Lisbon, Boston, and Brussels

Contextualizing the Access to Health Services of Bangladeshi Immigrants through a Social Determinants of Health Lens: Qualitative Perspectives from Immigrant Community Members and Service Providers in Lisbon, Boston, and Brussels

Making My Path by Walking: Using Community Based Participatory Research in Vietnamese American Studies

This paper outlines my Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) process as a pedagogical pathway: the creation of community-based curricula, of developing relationships with community partners, and the complexities I grappled with as a new Vietnamese American scholar at a university next to a large co-ethnic enclave. Specifically, I reflect on the partnership between my Vietnamese American Studies courses and a local elementary school with a high percentage of newly immigrated students from Viet Nam. We engaged in oral history interviews, classroom visits, the production of bilingual children’s books, and English language tutoring to build inter-generational bridges. Through this reflective process, I consider the role of the university in providing added support for Sheltered English Immersion (SEI) teachers as sources of cultural enrichment, community development and engagement, and pipelines for first-generation college students. I discuss the challenges and successes of developing a new community partnership with a local elementary school (pseudonym Hope Elementary) and building bridges between second-generation immigrant college students and first generation immigrant community members. The CBPR process offers an opportunity to begin a dialogue about the trajectory for teaching in and with transnational communities. In particular, it offers avenues of teaching and scholarship with Southeast Asian American communities that are relevant to their contemporary lived experiences.

Minding the gap: Elucidating the disconnect between arts participation metrics and arts engagement within immigrant communities

A growing gap between national metrics of arts participation and the many, evolving ways in which people participate in artistic and aesthetic activities limits the degree to which such data can usefully inform policy decisions. The National Endowment for the Arts’ Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA) is the primary source of arts participation data in the USA, but this instrument inadequately evaluates how members of minority and immigrant communities participate in the arts. As the USA nears a historic demographic shift to being a majority–minority nation – non-Hispanic White individuals will no longer be a demographic majority by about 2041 – obtaining more accurate measures of artistic activities that are meaningful to a more diverse population will be of increasing importance for public policy-making. To better understand the extent to which the SPPA's questions capture the range of artistic activities engaged in by members of immigrant communities, we cognitively tested a subset of the survey's questions with Chinese immigrants to the USA as a pilot case. We found that interviewees participate in a range of culturally specific and non-culturally specific arts activities that they did not report in response to the survey's questions. In this article, we draw upon these interviews to discuss the reasons underpinning the gap and suggest implications for updating research tools and future research. A better understanding of the gap between measured and actual “arts participation” will lead to improved measures and information to support artistic expression and arts more reflective of contemporary society.