title: Contributions and challenges of cross-national comparative research in migration, ethnicity and health: insights from a preliminary study of maternal health in Germany, Canada and the UK.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Public health researchers are increasingly encouraged to establish international collaborations and to undertake cross-national comparative studies. To-date relatively few such studies have addressed migration, ethnicity and health, but their number is growing. While it is clear that divergent approaches to such comparative research are emerging, public health researchers have not so far given considered attention to the opportunities and challenges presented by such work. This paper contributes to this debate by drawing on the experience of a recent study focused on maternal health in Canada, Germany and the UK.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The paper highlights various ways in which cross-national comparative research can potentially enhance the rigour and utility of research into migration, ethnicity and health, including by: forcing researchers to engage in both ideological and methodological critical reflexivity; raising awareness of the socially and historically embedded nature of concepts, methods and generated 'knowledge'; increasing appreciation of the need to situate analyses of health within the wider socio-political setting; helping researchers (and research users) to see familiar issues from new perspectives and find innovative solutions; encouraging researchers to move beyond fixed 'groups' and 'categories' to look at processes of identification, inclusion and exclusion; promoting a multi-level analysis of local, national and global influences on migrant/minority health; and enabling conceptual and methodological development through the exchange of ideas and experience between diverse research teams. At the same time, the paper alerts researchers to potential downsides, including: significant challenges to developing conceptual frameworks that are meaningful across contexts; a tendency to reify concepts and essentialise migrant/minority 'groups' in an effort to harmonize across countries; a danger that analyses are superficial, being restricted to independent country descriptions rather than generating integrated insights; difficulties of balancing the need for meaningful findings at country level and more holistic products; and increased logistical complexity and costs.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In view of these pros and cons, the paper encourages researchers to reflect more on the rationale for, feasibility and likely contribution of proposed cross-national comparative research that engages with migration, ethnicity and health and suggests some principles that could support such reflection.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Health and Social Care Research, Sheffield Hallam University, 32 Collegiate Crescent, Sheffield, S10 2BP, UK. s.salway@shu.ac.uk
authors.forename: Sarah M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Salway
authors.forename: Gina
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Higginbottom
authors.forename: Birgit
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Reime
authors.forename: Kuldip K
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Bharj
authors.forename: Punita
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Chowbey
authors.forename: Caroline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Foster
authors.forename: Jule
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Friedrich
authors.forename: Kate
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Gerrish
authors.forename: Zubia
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Mumtaz
authors.forename: Beverley
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: O'Brien
mesh_terms: D002170:Canada; D004641:Emigration and Immigration; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D007391:International Cooperation; D008429:Maternal Welfare / Q000208:ethnology*; D011634:Public Health; D012106:Research; D006113:United Kingdom