Intersectionality, mental health and Chinese people in the UK: a qualitative exploration

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide qualitative evidence from the experience of Chinese service users in the UK to expand the literature on the use of intersectionality analysis in research on the mental health of ethnic minority groups. Design/methodology/approach Repeated in-depth life-history interviews were carried out with 22 participants. Interviews were analysed using the constant comparative method. Findings Four areas of life are identified for their possible negative impact on mental health for this minority group: labour market and work conditions, marriage and family, education, and ageing. The findings illustrate how these intersecting variables may shape the social conditions this ethnic minority group face. For this ethnic minority group in the UK, inequalities can intersect at national as well as transnational level. Originality/value This paper highlights how power relations and structural inequalities including class, gender, age and ethnicity could be drawn upon to understand the interplay of determinants of mental health for ethnic minority groups. As the multi-factorial social forces are closely related to the emergence of poor mental health, it is suggested that interventions to reduce mental health problems in ethnic minority communities should be multi-level and not limited to individualised service responses.

Forced Displacement from Ukraine’s War-Torn Territories: Intersectionality and Power Geometry

“…Despite the fact that most of the research within intersectionality concerns gender and race, a considerable amount of literature has been published on the geographies of age (Hopkins and Pain 2007;Pain and Hopkins, 2010) and disability (Lister 2007;Erevelles and Minear 2010). An intersectional approach has also increasingly been employed to help understand ethnic diversity and inequality as determinants of health and services access (see, for example, Green et al 2014;Hankivsky and Christoffersen 2008), and as a tool for exploring mental health among migrants (Tang and Pilgrim 2017). Bastia (2014), providing an overview of intersectionality's role in migration studies, highlighted that it has "greatly contributed to visibilizing the interconnected and constitutive nature of multiple forms of oppression … in migration processes" (238).…”

The impact of precarious employment on the health and wellbeing of UK immigrants: a systematic review

“…Of the six dimensions of precariousness, all studies included participants who experienced temporariness, disempowerment and vulnerability (Weishaar, 2008;Wright, 2011;Potter and Hamilton, 2014;Scott, 2017;Tang and Pilgrim, 2017), three studies included participants who experienced the wage dimension of precariousness (Weishaar, 2008;Potter and Hamilton, 2014;Scott, 2017) and two studies included descriptions related to absence of rights and inability to exercise rights (Potter and Hamilton, 2014;Scott, 2017).…”

“…Included studies did not specifically present data on the types of work contracts that participants were subject to. However, descriptions of worker's experience in all included studies were suggestive of zero-hour contracts (Weishaar, 2008;Wright, 2011;Potter and Hamilton, 2014;Scott, 2017;Tang and Pilgrim, 2017) and two studies included workers who experienced piece-work (Potter and Hamilton, 2014;Scott, 2017).…”

“…Two studies were conducted in England (Wright, 2011;Tang and Pilgrim, 2017), one in Northern Ireland (Potter and Hamilton, 2014), one in Scotland (Weishaar, 2008) and one study had participants that were recruited in both England and Scotland (Scott, 2017). The identified nationalities of participants also varied between the selected studies.…”

“…The identified nationalities of participants also varied between the selected studies. Tang and Pilgrim (2017) presented data from Chinese participants, Weishaar (2008) sampled Polish participants and Peruvians were recruited in Wright (2011). The two other studies had participants who were A8 and A2 European migrants (Potter and Hamilton, 2014) and individuals from multiple nationalities in Africa, Asia and Europe (Scott, 2017).…”