A scoping review on the measurement of transnationalism in migrant health research in high-income countries

Abstract

Background Migrants commonly maintain transnational ties as they relocate and settle in a new country. There is a growing body of research examining transnationalism and health. We sought to identify how transnationalism has been defined and operationalized in migrant health research in high income countries and to document which populations and health and well-being outcomes have been studied in relation to this concept. Methods We conducted a scoping review using the methodology recommended by the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI). We searched nine electronic databases; no time restrictions were applied. Studies published in English or French in peer-reviewed journals were considered. Studies were eligible if they included a measure of transnationalism (or one of its dimensions; social, cultural, economic, political and identity ties and/or healthcare use) and examined health or well-being. Results Forty-seven studies, mainly cross-sectional designs (81%), were included; almost half were conducted in the United States. The majority studied immigrants, broadly defined; 23% included refugees and/or asylum-seekers while 36% included undocumented migrants. Definitions of transnationalism varied according to the focus of the study and just over half provided explicit definitions. Most often, transnationalism was defined in terms of social connections to the home country. Studies and measures mainly focused on contacts and visits with family and remittance sending, and only about one third of studies examined and measured more than two dimensions of transnationalism. The operationalization of transnationalism was not consistent and reliability and validity data, and details on language translation, were limited. Almost half of the studies examined mental health outcomes, such as emotional well-being, or symptoms of depression. Other commonly studied outcomes included self-rated health, life satisfaction and perceived discrimination. Conclusion To enhance comparability in this field, researchers should provide a clear, explicit definition of transnationalism based on the scope of their study, and for its measurement, they should draw from validated items/questions and be consistent in its operationalization across studies. To enhance the quality of findings, more complex approaches for operationalizing transnationalism (e.g., latent variable modelling) and longitudinal designs should be used. Further research examining a range of transnationalism dimensions and health and well-being outcomes, and with a diversity of migrant populations, is also warranted.

Local Ties, Trans-Local Ties, and Substance Use among Rural-to-Urban Migrants in China

“…Fifth, we assessed trans-local ties using behavioral indicators of connectedness to the migrants’ sending areas. Although behavioral indicators of transnationalism were widely used and have been validated in previous studies [ 44 ], future studies may include additional indicators of trans-local ties, such as perceived connectedness to the home communities. Lastly, constrained by the lack of provincial-representative data, we did not conduct a provincial-level analysis on migrant workers’ tobacco and alcohol use, despite that we have controlled for the region in our analysis.…”

Diasporic Medical Tourism: examining tourists’ profiles, antecedents and behavioural intention

“…Contextually, European research was under-represented in this investigation. Among a few rare studies, most of the research was conducted in the Netherlands (four studies in review by Kim et al, 2021), followed by the research in the United Kingdom and Denmark (review of Mathijsen & Mathijsen, 2020). Most of the current research on DMT has been conducted on the Mexican (and occasionally South Korean) population residing in the United States (Kim et al, 2021;Mathijsen & Mathijsen, 2020).…”

“…The literature has denoted the existence of diasporic medical tourism (DMT) in various countries across the globe (in-depth review of Kim et al, 2021;Mathijsen & Mathijsen, 2020;Villa-Torres et al, 2017). Nevertheless, the DMT category has been understudied, most likely given the complexity-to-document 'visiting friends and relatives' (VFR).…”

“…Despite the global growth in the number of travelling migrants and dispersed families and friends, research on the DMT has been scarce, and governmental institutions, tourism organisations, and academia often misunderstood the phenomenon (Mathijsen, 2019). The scant research on the DMT for the most part was conducted through a qualitative approach (Kim et al, 2021;Mathijsen & Mathijsen, 2020) and seldom in Europe.…”

Embedding cultural competency and cultural humility in undergraduate pharmacist initial education and training: a qualitative exploration of pharmacy student perspectives

“…With globalisation and immigration rates increasing in recent years, many countries have seen rapid changes to their population race-ethnic demographics [ 1 – 6 ]. Specifically within the United Kingdom (UK), recent 2021 census data has reported increases in the number people from ethnic minority communities, compared to previous years [ 7 ].…”