Doctoral Dissertation Research: Biosocial Responses to Political Invisibility in a Refugee Camp

博士论文研究：难民营中政治隐形的生物社会反应

• 批准号: 1732077
• 负责人: Rahul Oka
• 金额: $ 2.21万
• 依托单位: University of Notre Dame
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-07-01 至 2018-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1732077&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Biosocial; Responses

Extensive research has shown that a person's political and social status affects his or her physical, economic, and psychological well-being. However, we do not know exactly how this happens or particularly, how these different factors work together. In the United States and around the world, marginalized populations find ways to directly or indirectly access mainstream socio-economic resources. In the context of unprecedented global population mobility, there is a need to better understand the negative health and psychosocial impacts of low status, especially with respect to their effects on the economy at large. The research funded by this award will address this problem by examining a case in which people suddenly experience a very sharp reduction in their political and social status, which will allow the researchers to observe the effects more clearly. In addition, the research will test the idea that a person's social support networks moderate the effects of low status on well-being. This project will also contribute to an ongoing partnership between the co-PIs, economic development practitioners at the World Bank, humanitarian aid officials at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and health service providers from the International Rescue Committee. Data and analyses from this project will be shared with these policy makers to continue to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of refugee-oriented projects in a variety of global contexts.Notre Dame anthropology doctoral student Rieti Gengo, under the supervision of Dr. Rahul Oka and Dr. Lee T. Gettler, will carry out the research at the Kakuma Refugee Camp in northern Kenya. With approximately 200,000 residents, Kakuma is one of the world's largest refugee camps. Thousands of asylum seekers at Kakuma lose institutional support from the UNHCR and other international non-governmental organizations when their petitions for refugee status are rejected, denying them access to food distribution, healthcare resources, and other services. Those denied refugee status are expected to leave the camp, but most are unable to do so because of prohibitive financial costs and their precarious status as stateless persons. The unfortunate situation provides an important research opportunity to compare the effects of marginality on those who receive official status and those who do not. The researchers will collect data on how both groups obtain resources and how their social and behavioral responses are reflected in their health and physiology. They will employ ethnographic participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and the World Health Organization Quality of Life questionnaire to assess refugees' perceived wellbeing and integration into the camp's informal economy. They will collect social network data to quantify the size and diversity of social support networks. Body composition (body fat and BMI), blood pressure, and heart rate will be used to provide measures of overall health and nutritional status, while biomarkers of immune function and stress physiology will be assessed from blood and fingernail samples. Findings from this research will provide insight into the behavioral and physiological pathways through which low-status, marginalized populations cope with exclusion from institutional resources and services.

广泛的研究表明，一个人的政治和社会地位会影响他或她的身体、经济和心理健康。然而，我们并不确切地知道这是如何发生的，或者特别是这些不同因素如何协同作用。在美国和世界各地，边缘化人群想方设法直接或间接获得主流社会经济资源。在前所未有的全球人口流动的背景下，有必要更好地了解低地位对健康和心理社会的负面影响，特别是其对整个经济的影响。该奖项资助的研究将通过研究人们突然经历政治和社会地位急剧下降的案例来解决这个问题，这将使研究人员能够更清楚地观察其影响。此外，该研究还将检验一个人的社会支持网络缓和低地位对幸福感的影响的观点。该项目还将促进共同PI、世界银行的经济发展从业者、联合国难民事务高级专员办事处（UNHCR）的人道主义援助官员以及国际救援委员会的卫生服务提供者之间持续的伙伴关系。该项目的数据和分析结果将与这些政策制定者分享，以继续提高各种全球背景下面向难民的项目的有效性和效率。圣母大学人类学博士生 Rieti Gengo 在 Rahul Oka 博士和 Lee T. Gettler 博士的监督下，将在肯尼亚北部的卡库马难民营开展这项研究。卡库马难民营约有 20 万居民，是世界上最大的难民营之一。卡库马的数千名寻求庇护者因难民身份申请被拒绝而失去了联合国难民署和其他国际非政府组织的机构支持，导致他们无法获得食品分配、医疗资源和其他服务。那些被拒绝难民身份的人预计将离开难民营，但大多数人无法这样做，因为高昂的财务费用以及他们作为无国籍人的不稳定地位。这种不幸的情况提供了一个重要的研究机会，可以比较边缘化对获得官方地位的人和没有获得官方地位的人的影响。研究人员将收集有关这两个群体如何获取资源以及他们的社会和行为反应如何反映在他们的健康和生理中的数据。他们将采用人种学参与观察、半结构化访谈和世界卫生组织生活质量调查问卷来评估难民的幸福感以及融入难民营非正规经济的情况。他们将收集社交网络数据来量化社交支持网络的规模和多样性。身体成分（身体脂肪和体重指数）、血压和心率将用于衡量整体健康和营养状况，同时将从血液和指甲样本中评估免疫功能和应激生理学的生物标志物。这项研究的结果将深入了解地位低下、边缘化人群应对机构资源和服务排斥的行为和生理途径。