Health

Presentation and Discussion: Mapping Key Determinants of Immigrants’ Health in Brooklyn and Queens

On March 1, 2021, the Center for Migration Studies of New York (CMS) hosted a virtual presentation and discussion of its report, “Mapping Key Determinants of Immigrants’ Health in Brooklyn and Queens.” The report profiles the neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens where immigrant communities are most at risk for negative health outcomes. As a complement to the report, the interactive data tool maps key health determinants in Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, and the Bronx. Both aim to identify and potentially meet gaps in services to immigrant populations, particularly healthcare, housing, legal, educational, and work-related services.

Mapping Key Determinants of Immigrants’ Health in Brooklyn and Queens

This study maps the determinants of immigrant health in the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens. In doing so, it seeks to enable healthcare providers, government agencies, and non-profit immigrant-serving entities – including faith-based entities – to identify gaps in their services to immigrant populations, and to help meet the need – healthcare and other – of diverse immigrant communities at heightened risk of adverse health outcomes.

International Developments and Responses amid the COVID-19 Pandemic

United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) data indicates that there are approximately 281 million people living outside of their country of origin and they represent 3.6 percent of the global population. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that by mid-2020, the world’s population of forcibly displaced people and refugees surpassed 80 million. International migrants and the forcibly displaced have been hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic due to border closures, travel restrictions, unemployment, and xenophobia, racism, and stigmatization. They have been among the world’s most vulnerable persons to the pandemic and its socio-economic consequences.

DATA TOOL | Mapping Key Determinants of Immigrants’ Health in New York City

This data tool serves as a complement to CMS’s report, “Mapping Key Determinants of Immigrants’ Health in Brooklyn and Queens.” It is intended to allow healthcare providers, government agencies, and non-profit immigrant-serving entities, including faith-based organizations, to identify and potentially meet gaps in services to immigrant populations, particularly healthcare, housing, legal, educational, work-related, and other services.

In Northern Alabama, Catholic Program Provides Support to Immigrants

Guadalupan Multicultural Services of the Diocese of Birmingham, Alabama, otherwise known as “La Casita,” has provided a range of services to immigrants in northern Alabama for years.

Panel II • Migration Policy in the Midst of Multiple Pandemics

This panel examined trends in international migration and migration-related policies in the context of pandemics of disease, racism, and violence. It examined the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and related policies on migrants and refugees, drawing on a growing body of research on how pandemics affect marginalized communities. The intersection of the health pandemic and the pandemics of racism and violence also disproportionately affect persons of color, including migrants and refugees. This panel lifted up promising international, national, and local approaches to the immense challenges facing immigrants, refugees, and their communities of origin and destination. Panelists also discussed the role of immigrants and refugees in economic and social recovery.

MODERATOR
Susan Martin
Donald G. Herzberg Professor Emeritus School of Foreign Service
Georgetown University

SPEAKERS
Anne Richard
Former Assistant Secretary
Population, Refugees and Migration
U.S. State Department

Eskinder Negash
President
US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants
Former Director
Office of Refugee Resettlement

Paul Spiegel
Professor of the Practice and Director
Center for Humanitarian Health
Johns Hopkins University

Joseph Chamie
Former Research Director
Center for Migration Studies
Former Director
UN Population Division

Philip Martin
Professor Emeritus
University of California, Davis

Panel I • The Role of Migration Scholarship at a Time of Multiple Crises

This plenary panel of leading scholars explored the role, promise, and course of migration research and scholarship at a time of multiple crises. It particularly examined the importance of scholarship that crosses disciplines, competencies, and areas of expertise.

MODERATOR
Jamie Winders
Professor, Geography and the Environment
Director, Autonomous Systems Policy Institute
Syracuse University
Editor
International Migration Review

SPEAKERS
Oliver Bakewell
Senior Lecturer
Global Development Institute
University of Manchester

Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes
Professor of Economics
University of California, Merced

Ali R. Chaudhary
Assistant Professor of Sociology
Faculty Associate, Rutgers Program on South Asian Studies and the Center for Security, Race & Rights
Rutgers University

Brenda S.A. Yeoh
Raffles Professor of Social Sciences, Department of Geography
Director, Humanities and Social Science Research Office of the Deputy President
National University of Singapore

CMSONAIR | COVID-19 Testing Where Immigrants Feel Safe

La Casita has shifted many of its regular services to remote platforms and sent food boxes to community members. Sr. Gabriela has also been instrumental in making COVID-19 testing available to immigrants at local parishes.

Colombian Army and Police Launched Operation to Take Control of Irregular Trails

Venezuelan returnees are turning around and new migrants are joining them to walk to Colombia and other receiving countries in the subregion. The direction of the migration flow is changing, and it seems unstoppable. Meanwhile, the number of returnees entering Venezuelan legal checkpoints seems to be decreasing. Since last September, groups of youths, women, children, and entire families are daily walking back to Colombia using informal border paths.

CMSONAIR | Serving People on the Move Under Stay at Home Orders

The mission of the Scalabrinian order is to accompany people on the move. In the COVID-19 era, it is harder than ever to live out that mission.