Contextualizing immigrants' lived experience: story of Taiwanese immigrants in the United States.
Immigration involves extensive changes in living environments. Nonetheless, the predominant approach in the health science literature has been to utilize individual characteristics (including ethnic background) to explain and predict immigrants' lived experiences and health outcomes. Contexts, particularly the larger societal contexts by which immigrants are constituted, are generally ignored. Data from a critical ethnography regarding immigrants' experiences with language, occupation, and economic survival in the United States are utilized to illustrate that immigrants' lives are inseparable from the larger societal contexts, such as immigration policy, Western imperialism, and structural discrimination. The implications for practice, education, and research are discussed.
Tsai
Jenny Hsin-Chun
JH
School of Nursing, Seattle University, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA. jtsai@seattleu.edu
D000069:Acculturation; D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000884:Anthropology, Cultural; D002648:Child; D003144:Communication Barriers; D018864:Cultural Diversity; D004522:Educational Status; D004641:Emigration and Immigration; D004651:Employment / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008960:Models, Psychological; D033262:Narration; D015205:Northwestern United States; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D011287:Prejudice; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013624:Taiwan / Q000208:ethnology