Health Sciences Interprofessional Collaborative: A Perspective on Migration, COVID-19, and the Impact on Indigenous Communities

Abstract

At the United States-Mexico border, the impacts of immigration policy are dynamic with political, humanitarian, and health outcomes. This article highlights the experiences at the Casa Alitas migrant shelter in Tucson, Arizona. Casa Alitas aims to meet the needs of the im/migrants it serves, including the unique needs of indigenous asylum-seekers from Central America. We highlight the importance of community-based humanitarian response to support asylum-seekers in a way that acknowledges our shared humanity and implements specific approaches (e.g., language justice and trauma informed care). The effort at Casa Alitas is unique because in addition to other partnerships, Casa Alitas established an interprofessional collaboration between the University of Arizona Health Sciences Colleges and the Arizona State University School of Social Work. The interprofessional collaboration encourages mutual education amongst our professions and the use of our extended networks to meet the needs of im/migrants and asylum seekers in our community and the United States. We recommend the development of best practices in asylum health care, the importance of creating border-wide networks to build on local resources, and highlight the importance of exposing future health practitioners to trauma informed and culturally and linguistically appropriate care.

The Use of Qualitative Methods to Guide the Development of the Border Resilience Scale in a Participatory Research Study

“…The geopolitical reality also creates crisis points for residents, such as the constant influx of asylum seekers and the closing of the border during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Border communities consistently respond to these crises by creating humanitarian aid infrastructure powered by volunteers and community organizations [36], perhaps further evidence of their affiliation to a border identity with distinct personal and moral obligations.…”

Conditional on the Environment? The Contextual Embeddedness of Age, Health, and Socioeconomic Status as Predictors of Remote Work among Older Europeans through the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Furthermore, these age-based findings were obtained after controlling for education, occupation, and income, which are strong determinants of remote work capabilities (Bartik et al 2020; Brynjolfsson et al 2020; Dingel and Neiman 2020; Kavanagh et al 2021). More so than in younger adulthood, advancing age in later life implies greater vulnerability to the consequences of COVID-19 infection (Landau et al 2021; Wolf et al 2020), a fact that obtains throughout the socioeconomic spectrum. Accordingly, in concert with the HBM, older workers within later life might show intensified remote work negotiations.…”

“…Furthermore, studies have shown individual-level age and health to predict pandemic-era remote work, since they affect risk of serious health complications and mortality concomitant to COVID-19 infection (Landau et al 2021; Wolf et al 2020). Accordingly, having an underlying respiratory condition predicted working remotely (Camacho-Rivera, Islam, and Vidot 2020).…”

Language Access in Immigration Court: Guatemalan Indigenous Languages

“…According to Kladzyk et al, indigenous language speakers face greater risks while in Mexico traveling to the United States. They are more likely to suffer from persecution before coming to the United States (Landau, et al, 2021). In a newspaper article, Kladzyk et al reported indigenous language speakers in shelters in northern Mexico face language barriers, and that "significant problems await" in immigration court.…”