Methodological Challenges of Health-Related Research with Immigrants: Consequences of Politicization and Criminalization of Immigration

• In Event: Health and Social Justice

Abstract

While health-research with immigrant communities has never been an easy or simple endeavor, the current socio-political environment in the U.S. further compounds the challenge. Polarizing rhetoric, recent Executive Orders and the leveraging of rumor and speculation creates an ever more inhospitable realm for inclusive research with diverse populations. Consequences include: 1) significant challenges with recruitment of immigrant participants, as well as the health centers serving them; 2) meeting Internal Review Boards (IRBs) requirements to ensure minimization of risk to participants who may, in fact, sense escalation of risk; 3) potential inaccuracies of demographic data collection and misidentification of the study population; and 4) the politicization of research funding. These difficulties accompany an already complicated health-research picture where foreign-born status of patients is not usually systematically documented in the medical record, demographic data is typically collected in non-private “front desk” spaces, and language concordance between patients and providers to ensure accuracy of medical records is hard to assess. Potential solutions going forward include greater collaboration between researchers to learn from one another, documentation of foreign-born status in the medical record, increased privacy during collection of demographic information from patients in health centers, and a de-coupling of politics from health-research funding. These solutions may subsequently increase the reliability of findings, lead to an improved understanding of immigrant health and contribute toward more relevant and effective health interventions.

Author

• Margaret M Sullivan