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African Immigrant and Refugee Families Perceptions on Informational Support and Health Status: A Comparison of African Immigrants Living in South Africa and the United States
Abstract and Figures
The relationship between migration and health is complex, and its impact varies
considerably among individuals, across migrant groups, and from country to
country. Although African immigration to the United States (U.S.) and South
Africa has increased rapidly over the past two decades, little is known about the
health experiences of this growing population even though conditions
surrounding the migration process have been found to increase vulnerability to
ill health. The aim of this study is to examine and compare the perceptions of
African refugees and immigrants to South Africa and the U.S. on informational
support and its impact on health status. Data was collected from purposively
selected 62 African immigrants to the United States and 66 African immigrants
to South Africa using the PROMIS Global Health v1.2 and the PROMIS Item Bank
v2.0 (informational support) instruments which assess an individual’s general
physical, mental and social health.
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... In responding to life stressors, some migrants may engage in risky health behaviours such as substance use [62,66]. Engaging in social vices such as frequent use of substances such as smoking cigarettes, marijuana, or drinking alcohol is more common among young migrants than migrants who are older [66,67]. For older migrant females aged 48 + years, fertility declines, and the onset of menopausal symptoms, such as hot flashes, depression, and insomnia, may explain their decrease in life satisfaction [22,68]. ...
... Recent studies on the life satisfaction of migrants explore gender differences but yield irregular patterns which do not consider gendered sources of satisfaction. While female migrants' rights have advanced in debates in high-income countries, there are still many poor migrant women worldwide whose lives and well-being remain compromised for the foreseeable future [67,93]; furthermore, as the trajectory of these nations that have already improved equity in gender rights shows, the process is far from simple and does not end with legal changes alone but with sensitisation and policies that protect migrants from such crises. The rational assumption is that if the rights of migrants, irrespective of their gender, are improved, their life satisfaction levels will increase. ...
... According to the findings, males with more than four persons living in the household, not having enough to feed their children and not receiving any SASSA social grant had lower levels of satisfaction compared to those who do not have any of the indicators, while male migrants having four persons under 18 years old living with them are likely to experience middle life satisfaction. We argue that both internal and international migrants face psychological needs and are more concerned with financial burdens, leading to decreasing odds of attaining thriving life satisfaction in the long run [15,67]. The expectations of male respondents towards achieving thriving life satisfaction differ from those of females. ...
Background
Migrant populations in any country are a vulnerable group, and psycho-demographic research measuring life satisfaction has been used to assess migrants’ well-being in developed and developing countries. However, South Africa, with its high influx of migrant populations, has investigated these topical concerns from the perspective of xenophobia, with mixed findings. However, no, or very few studies have examined life satisfaction among migrants in South Africa. This study, therefore, extends previous literature by examining the determinants of life satisfaction among South Africa’s internal and international migrant populations.
Methods
We conducted a cross-sectional study from the 2009 to 2021 Gauteng City-Region Observatory (GCRO) Quality of Life (QoL) surveys among migrant populations in two ways: a full sample and a gender-stratified sample. A sample of male and female migrants ranging from 15 to 49 years of age were recruited into this study. Cantril’s Self-Anchoring Ladder Life Satisfaction scale captured their life satisfaction alongside relevant social demographic factors. Descriptive statistics were applied for the data analysis of the demographic factors. Bivariate and multivariate logistics regression analyses were conducted to assess the associations and the predictive factors of life satisfaction among migrants, both internal and international.
Results
The key findings were the gender distribution of life satisfaction, showing that more international (male – 66.0% and female – 67.1%) migrants reported having a thriving life satisfaction than internal migrants (male – 61.7% and female – 61.5%). Findings from the Pearson correlation coefficient revealed a significant association between the individual, household, and community factors by migrant status (ρ < 0.05). However, the probit coefficients revealed that individual factors (age 48⁺: AOR = 2.18, 95% CI: 1.13, 3.23, and secondary/higher education: AOR = 1.1., 95% CI: 0.01, 1.19) and household factors (two persons living in households (H/H): AOR = 1.05, 95% CI: 0.50, 1.10), and community factors (international migrant status: AOR = 2.12, 95% CI: 0.08, 2.16) significantly increase the prediction of higher odds of life satisfaction by gender among migrants. The ordered logit coefficients also showed that individual factors (middle and high income and having health insurance) and household factors (receiving SASSA social grant) predicted the highest life satisfaction among migrants (internal and international).
Conclusion
We found substantial evidence that individual-, household-, and community-level factors were associated with life satisfaction among migrants. In particular, the pattern of life satisfaction varied slightly between male and female migrants, as well as with migrant status in South Africa. These findings collectively may provide helpful information for policymakers and practitioners to optimise interventions for migrant populations to improve their life satisfaction. Evidence from this study also calls on the government of South Africa to begin tracking the life satisfaction of its nationals, whether migrants or not.
... 6 Some studies report a comparative view of African and African American populations' health through the "healthy immigrant" lens, reporting that African immigrants in the U.S. are generally healthier than African Americans of the same age. 7,8 However, information in other categories of health, such as chronic diseases, health care beliefs and attitudes, health care access, facilitators of care, and other vital issues, is not adequately researched and documented. In addition, because of the increasing burden of non-communicable diseases, there is an enormous need to investigate the prevention and management of chronic health conditions among African immigrants. ...
... At the interpersonal level, the findings also highlighted that the level of social support within the host country plays a crucial role in shaping immigrant health. Previous research 7,40 showed that information and social support such as family, friends, and community were positively associated with immigrants' oral health outcomes. Informational barriers present a substantial challenge in that, for this population, information on benefits of public programs is often communicated via word of mouth. ...
Using a social-ecological model (SEM), this qualitative study explored the facilitators of access to primary health care (PHC) among Ethiopian immigrant women in the U.S. Data were collected through in-depth interviews ( N =21, ≥18 years) and analyzed thematically using Nvivo12. At the individual level, stable employment, insurance, immigration status, proactivity, education, communication skills, and internet usage were identified as facilitators of PHC access. Interpersonal support from family and friends was highlighted as a key facilitator. Institutional facilitators included interpretation services and the sociocultural background of health care providers. On the community level, support from community organizations and residing in certain locations were recognized as facilitators of PHC access. No policy-level facilitators were identified. The findings underscore the importance of strengthening individual and interpersonal capacities, including job opportunities, social support, legal assistance for immigration status, and education and communication skills. Further research is needed to analyze policy gaps and suggest viable solutions.
This study examines the familial ties in the social support network of refugees in Germany. It investigates whether distance to family plays a role in the provision of emotional and informational support and how this relationship is moderated by social network services (SNS). Using data from the IAB-BAMF-SOEP Survey of Refugees (N = 5237), the paper provides evidence for a family-centred network. Increasing distance to family is generally negatively associated with receiving support. However, the strength of support from the partner and sibling is less affected by distance than support from parents. Findings indicate that emotional support can generally be conveyed across greater distances, while informational support, often entailing location-bound aid, is not as easily transmittable. This study contributes to the understanding of refugee networks as transnational families with intergenerational differences in support. It also refines the depiction of support dynamics as being multifaceted and potentially limited due to fragmented contacts.
Background
Medical xenophobia of migrant (either in-migrants or immigrants) youths is an ongoing problem in contemporary South African society. Medical mistreatment by healthcare workers and social phobia from migrant youths have been attributed to major obstacles to healthcare utilization as well as health services satisfaction. This study aimed to determine the prevalence and factors contributing to health services satisfaction and medical exclusion among migrant youths in Gauteng province in South Africa.
Methods
The Round 5 Gauteng City-Region Observatory (GCRO) Quality of Life (QoL) survey was conducted in 2017‒2018, a nationally representative survey piloted every two years in South Africa, was utilized in this study. A 2-year cohort study of 24,889 respondents aged 18 to 29 and a baseline data consisted of 4,872 respondents, comprising non-migrants, in-migrants and immigrants, from where 2,162 in-migrants and immigrants were utilized as the sample size. The data was analysed using descriptive statistics, Chi-Square analysis and logistic regression.
Results
A total of 2,162 migrants, comprising 35.4% in-migrants and 9.0% of immigrants, from the 4,872 respondents, were included in the analysis. The prevalence of medical exclusion of in-migrant and immigrant youths were 5.5% and 4.2%, and the majority of them reported the use of public health facilities (in-migrants ‒ 84.3% vs. immigrants ‒ 87.1%). At the bivariate level, demographic (age, sex, and population group), economic (employed and any income) and health-related (no medical aid and household member with mental health) factors were significantly associated with medical exclusion (ρ≤0.05). The adjusted odds ratio showed that only female gender (AOR: 1.07, 95% CI: 0.678, 1.705), no medical aid cover (AOR: 1.23, 95% CI: 0.450, 3.362), and neither (AOR: 1.59, 95% CI: 0.606, 4.174) or dissatisfied (AOR: 4.29, 95% CI: 2.528, 7.270) were independent predictors of medical exclusion.
Conclusion
Having no medical aid cover, being a female and dissatisfied, or neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with health services significantly increased the odds of medical exclusion among migrant youths. To increase healthcare utilization and ensuring adequate medical care of migrant youths, opting for medical aid insurance without increasing costs should be guaranteed. Therefore, there should be no consequences for lack of residence status or correct documentation papers when accessing healthcare services among migrant youths in South Africa.
The migration of Somali women into South Africa is a fast growing phenomenon due to migrants fleeing intersecting factors of socio-political and economic nature. As compared to Somalia and Kenya, where they encounter socio- political and economic destabilization, these women arrive in South Africa with many expectations for a better life. Somali women leave their countries of origin due to civil wars, Al-Shabaab menace, economic crisis, a lack of opportunities and the need for the transit route to Europe and America. Despite this, women encounter several complexities within the transnational space, such as Xenophobia-Afrophobia. This study focuses on the Xenophobia-Afrophobia related complexities of Somali women in the transnational space. While Xenophobia is the fear of foreigners, Afrophobia is the fear of Black foreigners of African origin. The term Xenophobia-Afrophobia is adopted into the study because, in South African context, both Black Africans who are non-South Africans and foreigners from outside Africa are soft targets of the antiforeigner’s bigotry.
Bigotry among anti-foreigners poses a current problem facing contemporary South Africa, damaging the image of Africa and other counties who are resisting immigrant’s influx into their countries. Due to Somali businesses being established amongst the poorest communities in South Africa, natives brand them as ‘job stealers’ and competitors of scarce opportunities manufacturing them as the main victims of Xenophobia-Afrophobia. (Niyigena, 2013). The upsurge of violence against foreign nationals in 2008 and 2015, and the isolated incidences of 2010, 2013 and 2014, are some of the examples that vividly speak to the issues of Xenophobia-Afrophobia in South Africa.
This study ushers in a gender perspective of the complex phenomenon of Xenophobia-Afrophobia, as it centres around Somali women. Existing studies in Xenophobia-Afrophobia tend to categorise migrants as a homogeneous entity. However there is a huge diversity among foreign nationals with reference to their different social locations. This study examines women’s multiple social locations by accentuating the diversity of their experiences of Xenophobia-Afrophobia. It also unearths underlying interconnected power factors that either impede or empower their capacity to navigate a transnational context.
This is an empirical qualitative study that adopts in-depth interviews for the data collection of Xenophobia-Afrophobia experiences of Somali women in the Gauteng province. The in-depth interviews were purposively conducted with forty interview participants that comprised 2 Action Support Centre officials. There were 38 Somali participants within and outside SASOWNET that were interviewed. The sample included Somali academics from various South African universities. The analysis of the datum, which was intended to give meaning to the social phenomenon facing complexities amongst Somali women, adopted a thematic analysis that capitalized on the salient themes throughout the analysis process. The study employed the theories of feminist intersectionality, Gendered Geographies of Power, and Social Network. This study found out that within the transnational space, women experienced overt and covert Xenophobia-Afrophobia within the intersections of their nationality, gender, clan, education, religion differently, because their social locations affected how they negotiated their spaces within the context of Xenophobia. Despite the Xenophobia-Afrophoba complexity affecting Somali women, this study rules out that women are helpless victims. However it proposes the thinking that women have agency which facilitates the negotiation within the transnational space.
Within the transnational space, women experience covert Xenophobia-Afrophobia in the Department of Health, Department of Home Affairs, law enforcement and educational institutions. Futher, overt Xenophobia is also manifested in the violent attacks that have been prevalent in the province.
KEY WORDS: Gender, Transnational migration, Transnational space, Xenophobia-Afrophobia
The recent rise in migrant remittances across Sub-Saharan Africa is one of the
important issues currently dominating economic policy discourse in the region.
Given the large volume of remittance flows, it is obvious that they have important
positive and negative economic effects on the individual families and economies
that receive them. Therefore, this paper critically examines channels through
which remittance transfers affect microeconomic and macroeconomic activity,
and suggests policy options available to Sub-Saharan African countries in terms
of harnessing their development potential. The paper affirms that prospects for
remittances to facilitate economic development remain high provided that
recipient countries put in place institutional frameworks capable of mitigating
the malign effects and enhancing the benign effects of remittances.
This research empirically examines the macroeconomic determinants of ‘pull’ factors of international migration in South Africa. Using the neoclassical economic model of international migration, an Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression was run on time-series data from the World Bank data base for the period 1990-2012. Relevant data from the South African Department of Home Affairs’ Annual Reports were also used. GDP per capita, inflation rate, real interest rate, employment rate and public health expenditure were found to be the key determinants which entice migrants away from their countries and direct them to “better off” destinations. The country’s public education system, on the other hand, is not a significant attraction for foreign migrants. The study concludes that the South African government urgently needs to implement not only skilled worker-attractive immigration policies but also appropriate fiscal and monetary restructuring policies aimed at growing the economy and creating employment opportunities.
Research on international migration has brought about remarkable awareness within the global research community, stimulating some theorists and policy-makers to talk about ‘international migration’ as a field for research. A number of research organizations have also adopted various methods of inquiry to examine and change their research agendas and practices. Although much is known about international migration, there are still many unanswered questions. Formulating a comprehensive agenda that is well informed by research can have a real influence on the lives of migrants throughout the world. It is also believed that the outcome of this research will help the ways in which concerned organizations think and act while dealing with the situation of international migrants. This research is aimed at drawing an inclusive research agenda that is better informed by distinguishable human rights requirements. The research agenda presented here is the result of the contribution of nearly 35 purposely selected researchers from various organizations working in the area of international migration in sub-Saharan Africa. The knowledge base that is produced from this study can yield data and information to governmental and non-governmental organizations that are dealing with international migration in sub-Saharan Africa.
This book, titled Girls on the Move, focuses on adolescent girls in poor countries who move, while still young, from their natal homes to cities and towns. It provides new quantitative evidence from the Demographic and Health Surveys and from the IPUMS collection of census micro-data. (An expanded version of this section was published in 2016 in the International Handbook of Migration and Population Distribution, edited by Michael J. White.) To put this complex topic in context, Girls on the Move contains an extensive review of the literature.
