Doctoral Dissertation Research: Migrant Health Status in Migration Stream

新到美国的墨西哥移民显示出非常高的健康水平。有人假设，移徙者的健康状况良好是一个选择过程的结果，在这个过程中，境况较好的人往往会移徙。通过研究一个定义明确的移民流，我将确定移民到这个国家的人是否真的比留在墨西哥的人更健康，并测试两种不同的理论，这可能解释为什么更健康的人移民。这项研究借鉴了定量和定性数据，并将在一个只有男性的农业移民流从墨西哥中部的农村社区在美国的科罗拉多州。共同主要研究员将对移民、返回移民、移民招聘者和承包商进行半结构化访谈，以了解移民决策的背景以及健康状况可能对这一决定产生的作用。定量数据将通过横断面调查收集，其中包括墨西哥成年男性移民（在美国）及其留在原籍社区的同行的选定健康状况指标、移民网络特征和移民决策因素（在墨西哥）。本论文的结果将增加我们对移民抵达时的健康状况的了解，也将扩大我们对社会过程的理解，这对研究移民适应是有用的。这项研究的贡献将在墨西哥和美国的几次国家会议上以及通过科学期刊文章传播给科学界。该研究项目将促进墨西哥和美国学生参与两国研究体验。

Mexican immigrants who are new to the United States show remarkably high levels of health. It has been hypothesized that the good health status of migrants is the result of a selection process through which those who are better off tend to move. By studying a well-defined migration stream, I will determine if men who migrate to this country are actually healthier than their counterparts who stayed in Mexico and test two different theories that might explain why healthier people migrate. This study draws upon quantitative and qualitative data and will be conducted in a male-only agricultural migration stream from rural communities in central Mexico to the state of Colorado in the US. The Co-PI will conduct semi-structured interviews with migrants, return-migrants, migrant recruiters and contractors to understand the context of migration decision-making and the role that health status might have on this decision. The quantitative data will be collected through a cross-sectional survey that includes selected health status indicators, migrant network characteristics, and migration decision-making factors of Mexican adult male migrants (in the US) and their counterparts who stay in their communities of origin (in Mexico). The results of this dissertation will add to our knowledge of the health of immigrants when they arrive and will also expand our understanding of social processes that could be useful to study immigrant adaption. The contributions of this study will be disseminated to the scientific community at several national conferences both in Mexico and the US, as well as through scientific journal articles. This research project will promote the participation of students in Mexico and the US in a binational research experience.