Population Research Discovery Seminars
State-Level Immigration and Immigration-Focused Policies as Drivers of Health Disparities Among Latinx Individuals in the United States: A Mixed Methods Analysis
Morgan Philbin, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociomedical Sciences, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health
Register for Zoom Seminar HERE
02/18/2022
12:30-1:30 PM PT
Co-Sponsor(s):
Non-health-related policies can impact health, particularly for marginalized populations. Research has increasingly demonstrated the potential pathways through which immigration policies can affect health outcomes, including care seeking and mental health. Recent work has expanded this to show the impact of the immigration policy climate as a whole, in addition to the effect of singular policies. This study investigates the relationship between immigration policies and birth outcomes among U.S. versus foreign born Latinx individuals from 2013-2019. Specifically, it examines the relationship between the following three aspects of the immigration policy climate and birth outcomes: 1) overall immigration policy climate—an index of 14 immigration policies; 2) specific sub-domains within the immigration policy climate (e.g., related to labor, health and education); and 3) singular policies within the health domain. This study then concludes with a brief description of qualitative interviews with pregnant immigrants in NYC, and key stakeholders from across the U.S., to demonstrate their alignment with quantitative findings. This study suggests the need to expand beyond a ‘one policy-one outcome’ approach to immigration policy research to examine how the policy climate as a whole impacts health disparities for Latinx populations.
Dr. Philbin is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociomedical Sciences at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Dr. Philbin is a social and behavioral scientist whose work integrates community-based and social determinants of health frameworks to examine how social policies and clinical practices shape inclusion and health equity for Black, Latinx and sexual and gender minority (SGM) young people. This includes mixed methods research that explores how individual social policies, and the policy climate as a whole, affect health disparities for minoritized populations with a focus on immigration and substance use. Her primary research project is a NIDA-funded K01 that explores how state and local policies structure sexual health and substance use related risk behaviors among Black and Latinx youth and young adults; this also includes research on how immigration policies impact health disparities for Latinx individuals. Her work also examines how clinical guidelines affect care engagement among Latinx and Black women; she is currently PI of an R34 that is developing a patient decision aid to help minoritized women and providers choose between oral and long-acting injectable HIV medication. Dr. Philbin has conducted public policy-focused research in the United States, Mexico and China. She was recently awarded the 2021 NIH Office of Disease Prevention Early-Stage Investigator Lecture Award.