This article explores how social service providers in two small, geographically distinct cities-Portland, Maine, and Olympia, Washington-understand the importance of welcoming and incorporating new immigrants in their cities. We focus on how providers characterize their responsibilities, how they understand the importance of responding to new immigrants, and what they describe as the challenges and opportunities presented by recent immigration to their cities. Despite differences in Portland and Olympia, we find that providers in both cities combine a sense of moral responsibility to help immigrants, with an emphasis on the economic and cultural resources immigrants bring to cities. These insights expand recent immigration scholarship from a focus on immigrants alone to include the perspectives and logics of social service workers who are often their first points of contact in new places.

Latino immigrants are less likely to be involved in addressing health-related issues affecting their own community. Community health workers have played a significant role in addressing the health of underserved communities in several countries.

This study investigates employment and health outcomes in Iraqi refugees compared to Iraqi immigrants. We surveyed 148 Iraqi professional refugees and 111 Iraqi professional immigrants residing in the U.S. We hypothesized that Iraqi refugees would report lower employment and worse self-rated health as compared to Iraqi immigrants. Logistic Regression was used to test various models. Results showed that more immigrants were employed, as well as employed in their original profession as compared to refugees. Regardless of immigration status, participants' age and the way they rated their job played a larger role in health. The study is the first to demonstrate that, controlling for professional, ethnic and cultural background, there are unknown mechanisms resulting in lower employment and skilled employment in refugees as compared to matched immigrant controls. Furthermore, satisfaction with the new work appears more important than employment per se.

Smokeless tobacco and areca nut are popular with South Asians and South Asian immigrants, most commonly used as paan and gutka. Their regular use leads to oral cancer. The South Asian community in the U.S. is rapidly growing, where paan and gutka are readily available. The study was the first exploration of the migration of the paan and gutka habits, and their use in the U.S.A 108-item questionnaire on paan and gutka usage and beliefs was administered to 138 first-generation Bangladeshi and Indian-Gujarati immigrant adults at community sites in the New York metropolitan area. Forty-five percent Indian-Gujaratis reported ever-regular paan use; of which 5% are current users. Thirty-one percent reported ever-regular gutka use; of which 77% are current users. Thirty-five percent Bangladeshis reported ever-regular paan use; of which 70% arc current users. Nine percent reported ever-regular gutka use; of which 67% are current users. Bangladeshis are more likely to identify paan as causing oral cancer. Indian-Gujaratis are more likely to identify gutka as causing oral cancer.Between the two communities, there were significant differences in paan and gutfca usage, migration effects, and oral career risk perception. There is a need for comprehensive migration studies on the determinants of usage, and for community-specific interventions for these carcinogenic products.

Encounters with Western psychiatric treatment and acculturation may influence causal beliefs of psychiatric illness endorsed by Chinese immigrant relatives, thus affecting help-seeking. We examined causal beliefs held by forty-six Chinese immigrant relatives and found that greater acculturation was associated with an increased number of causal beliefs. Further, as Western psychiatric treatment and acculturation increased, causal models expanded to incorporate biological/physical causes. However, frequency of Chinese immigrant relatives' endorsing spiritual beliefs did not appear to change with acculturation. Clinicians might thus account for spiritual beliefs in treatment even after acculturation increases and biological causal models proliferate.

The U.S. war with Iraq led to the displacement of millions of Iraqis, many of whom have resettled in the United States as refugees. We explore the challenges Iraqi families face after resettlement, with a particular focus on the agency of refugees and challenges/opportunities of familial social reproduction in a transnational context. We conducted 181 qualitative interviews with 38 Iraqis (11 youth, 27 adults) and 5 service providers. Our findings highlight the importance of exploring refugee agency and illuminate how the interplay between structure and agency in transnational contexts is a useful framework for understanding transformations around social roles.

Although nonremoved rejected asylum seekers (NRASes) are declared unwanted, the liberal state is obliged to provide them with basic social protections. We argue that various social policy designs can mediate the representative-politics-liberal-rights dilemma and allow for (limited) access to differentiated, conditioned benefits. Drawing on migration control and welfare-state literature, the findings stem from expert interviews with stakeholders and document analysis in Austria, Sweden, and the Netherlands. Welfare-enabling approaches are context specific, varying from path dependencies in Sweden to change-resistant forms of policymaking in Austria. In the Netherlands, exclusionary measures are explained by early general welfare retrenchments.

Limitations in access to welfare services for noncitizens of a host country are structured through conditional entitlements, which require benefit claimants to meet certain conditions to access welfare services. This article explores the conditions and regulations determining access to state-organized accommodation facilities for non-removed rejected asylum seekers in Austria, the Netherlands, and Sweden and the way in which these conditions are implemented. Based on qualitative interviews with stakeholders and analysis of policy documents, I argue that qualities of deservingness, such as vulnerability and performance, determine noncitizens' access to state-provided accommodation, which strengthens the logic of migration control.

Undocumented immigrants often experience multiple chronic stressors that over time can increase health risk. This qualitative study used data from 7 focus groups and 15 key informant interviews to identify relevant protective factors to the heath of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. Findings showed that at the individual level, undocumented immigrants rely primarily on motivation to cope with adversity, while also relying on family support and community cohesion at the interpersonal level. At the policy level, safe neighborhoods and non-stigmatizing environments, protection from abuse/exploitation, and activism were identified as protective factors. English proficiency was also identified as important.