Local sociopolitical context and South Asian immigrant health in the Trump Era

• In Event: Asia and Asian American Section Roundtables Session
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 9: Asia and Asian America Section Roundtable - Race and Politics

Abstract

Sociopolitical stress can stem from exclusionary immigration policies, encroachment on religious freedoms, authoritarianism, and/or legalized structural racism. At the national level, this can contribute to heightened maternal stress and impact health across the life course, though the local contexts of individual lives may exacerbate or mitigate national-level structural effects on health. South Asian immigrants from Muslim and non-Muslim countries are structurally exposed to these stressors, though excluded from mainstream racial and immigrant health disparities research. In this study, I use population-level birth certificate data from the National Center for Health Statistics to focus on two birth outcomes, low birthweight and preterm birth, among South Asian immigrant mothers from four countries of origin: Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and India. I operationalize a unique form of sociopolitical stress – residing in a county that pivoted from voting Democratic in the 2012 elections to voting for a divisive and prejudiced Republican candidate in 2016. I use multilevel linear models and a difference-in-differences approach to examine the potential health consequences of this local climate through the prevalence of low birthweight births and preterm births before (2013-2016) and after (2017-2019) the 2016 U.S. Presidential election among South Asian immigrant mothers residing in Pivot Counties (2012: Democrat; 2016: Republican) compared to Non-Pivot Counties (2012: Democrat; 2016: Republican). South Asian immigrant mothers from Muslim countries (Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan) who lived in pivot counties experienced worsened birth outcomes in the aftermath of the Trump election compared to immigrant mothers from India, suggesting the importance of disaggregating the South Asian category to better captured differential structural disadvantage and further inquiry into the unique role of anti-Muslim racism on certain racialized immigrant groups.

Author

• Nafeesa Andrabi, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor