Despite increasing efforts to promote and support breastfeeding, the United States continues to have some of the lowest exclusive and sustained breastfeeding rates globally. Foreign-born immigrants and refugees specifically have been reported to have high initiation but low exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) rates. This scoping review aims to explore what is known about strategies to support breastfeeding among foreign-born mothers in the United States using the Arksey & O’Malley framework for scoping reviews and PRISMA-ScR (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews). Six databases were searched using a comprehensive search strategy and 2,103 articles were identified, of which 31 met eligibility criteria and discussed 33 specific breastfeeding interventions. The articles describe a range of interventions including breastfeeding promotion and education (n=30), hands-on breastfeeding support (n=9), material support -like giving breastfeeding supplies and food- (n=16), social support (n=18), and social marketing campaigns (n=1) to promote community support for breastfeeding. Common strategies for implementing these interventions include individual counseling (n=21), group breastfeeding education (n=17), informational materials (n=12) and family support promotion (n=11). 87.2% of the immigrant mothers targeted by these breastfeeding support interventions were Hispanic; 4.5% and 7.0% were mothers of African and Asian descent respectively. This study reveals limited data and key gaps in efforts to preserve the culture of breastfeeding and promote EBF among multicultural immigrant and refugee families, particularly non-Hispanic groups. Addressing these gaps will improve optimal infant feeding practices among foreign-born mothers in the U.S and consequently maternal and infant health outcomes.

This case study documents the characteristics of a Community Congregate Dining (CCD) for Japanese Canadian (Nikkei) seniors aged 65+ in the Greater Toronto Area and explores participants’ and providers’ experiences. Data were collected through (a) observations of six CCD sites; (b) qualitative interviews with 45 CCD program participants, 1 family member, 15 program providers and volunteers; and (c) analysis of policy and administrative documents about the CCD programs. Our thematic analysis identified social benefits, educational benefits, and the importance of Japanese meals and entertainment that together created a unique atmosphere of ‘Japanese-ness’ at the CCD. While the CCD fosters a sense of belonging and supports healthy aging among Nikkei seniors, the program’s success depends on managing diverse linguistic needs, maintaining opportunities for meaningful interaction, and ensuring transportation access. The findings highlight broader lessons for designing inclusive and culturally responsive social services for increasingly diverse Canadian older adults.

How does international migration impact the composition of the demos? Constitutional doctrines and democratic theories suggest contrasting responses: an insular one excludes both non‐citizen immigrants and citizen‐emigrants; a deterritorialised one includes all citizens wherever they reside; a postnational one includes all residents and only these. This article argues that none of these predicted responses represents the dominant pattern of democratic adaptation, which is instead a level‐specific expansion of the national franchise to include non‐resident citizens and of the local franchise to include non‐citizen residents. This is demonstrated by analysing an original dataset on voting rights in 31 European and 22 American countries, and outlining a level‐sensitive normative theory of citizenship that provides support for this pattern as well as a critical benchmark for current franchise policies. The findings can be summarised in two inductive generalisations: (1) Voting rights today no longer depend on residence at the national level and on citizenship of the respective state at the local level; (2) Voting rights do, however, generally depend on citizenship of the respective state at the national level and on residence at the local level. In the article, these are called the patterns of franchise ‘expansion’ and ‘containment’. The former supports the idea of widespread level‐specific expansion of the franchise and refutes the insular view of the demos. The latter signals corresponding level‐specific restrictions, which defeats over‐generalised versions of deterritorialised or postnational conceptions of the demos. In order to test how robust this finding is, cases are analysed where the dominant patterns of expansion have been resisted and where unexpected expansion has occurred. With regard to the former, the article identifies constitutional and political obstacles to voting rights expansion in particular countries. With regard to the latter, the article shows that even where national voting rights have been extended to non‐citizen residents, containment remains strong through indirect links to citizenship.

A large set of research argues that policy responsiveness towards excluded societal factions such as minorities of immigrant origin improves through the presence of group members in parliaments because they bring forward different perspectives during parliamentary debates. This article challenges the straightforwardness of this relationship by demonstrating that the ability of legislators with immigrant backgrounds to shift the parliamentary agenda closer to the ideal points of citizens of foreign descent is conditional on two factors. First, representatives of immigrant origin need incentives to cultivate a personal vote, and second, their overall proportion of parliamentary seats has to remain rather marginal to influence the policy positions of the majority of representatives. The article's findings thus stress the importance of studying the contextual factors that moderate the relationship between group belonging and the capacity to promote group interests. Empirical evidence from nine European Democracies between 2002 and 2014 substantiates this argument – so that the analysis constitutes the first cross‐country comparison in a research field that has so far been dominated by single country studies. By using policy congruence as a measure for responsiveness, this article shifts the focal point from individual representatives’ attempts to promote the interests of citizens with immigrant backgrounds towards effectiveness of these endeavours.

Volunteering is associated with health-promoting benefits for both recipients and volunteers and may contribute to a more inclusive society. However, studies have shown a persistent pattern of social inequality among those who volunteer, and immigrants participate as volunteers less than the majority population. To date, approaches for recruiting immigrant populations have not been sufficiently examined, even though multicultural societies are becoming increasingly diverse. This study investigates how recruitment is carried out in voluntary organizations and how volunteers who are involved in recruitment reflect on the inclusion of citizens with immigrant backgrounds. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 18 volunteers and three employees with recruitment responsibility at five voluntary organizations engaged in welfare and community-related activities in a semirural district in Norway. Our findings show that different structural factors and individual aspects of the recruiter influence the recruitment of immigrants as volunteers. Large-scale organizations are more professionalized and more directed by fundings and frameworks and demand more qualifications due to their volunteer tasks. This might make inclusive recruitment more challenging. Small-scale organizations have more flexibility and less professionalized volunteer activities, making recruitment more inclusive. In addition, if the small-scale organizations are minority driven, it seems to positively influence the recruitment of immigrants through increased diversity sensitivity and more connections with immigrants through their social network.

Migrant community-based organizations (MCBOs) are key mediating structures between immigrants and host societies. However, when implementing this role in host societies, MCBOs often face a number of challenges that reduce their chances to be effective in promoting social justice. This paper aims to analyze the challenges that MCBOs settled in Milan (Northern Italy) experience and the coping strategies that they use in order to provide some guidelines on how to support them. In-depth interviews, observations and document analysis with 15 MCBOs were conducted. Based on a situational analysis, we present the main challenges perceived by MCBOs at three levels: internal (i.e., surviving), inter-organizational (i.e., collaborating) and community (i.e., being recognized as mediating actors). We provide specific guidelines for action on how to address such challenges and thus foster the role of MCBOs as mediating structures in receiving societies.

The implementation of policies that have sought to involve immigrant associations in the development of their countries of origin, under the name of co-development, was a novelty in Spain during the last decade. This new model of development cooperation carried out by the migrants themselves has not only generated new opportunities for its associations, but also significant risks, especially in the field of decentralized cooperation driven by autonomous communities. In this article, we present the specific case of the Valencian Community, where the co-development reached a considerable degree of implementation between 2006 and 2012. Through the analysis of Valencian co-development policies, it is possible to see how immigrant associations have actually occupied a secondary place in the new cooperation schemes against the NGO Development, while many have abandoned their protest to focus on projects and proposals for welfare activities.

Participation in voluntary associations is an important part of an immigrant’s integration into a host country. This study examines factors that predispose an immigrant’s voluntary involvement in religious and secular organizations compared to non-immigrants (“natives”) in Canada, and how immigrants differ from natives in their voluntary participation. The study results indicate that informal social networks, religious attendance, and level of education positively correlate with the propensity of both immigrants and natives to participate and volunteer in religious and secular organizations. Immigrants who have diverse bridging social networks, speak French and/or English at home, and either attend school or are retired are more likely to participate and volunteer for secular organizations. Further, social trust matters to native Canadians in their decision to engage in religious and secular organizations but not to immigrants. Pride and a sense of belonging, marital status, and the number of children increase the likelihood of secular voluntary participation of natives but not of immigrants. These findings extend the current understanding of immigrant integration and have important implications for volunteer recruitment.

This qualitative research study examines how volunteering and nonvolunteering is associated with immigrant perceptions of their integration into US society. The study analyzes 24 semi-structured interviews to explore differences in social integration experiences and perceptions of social integration between immigrant volunteers and nonvolunteers. The study’s theoretical framework is intersectionality, and the conceptual framework consists of social integration, rational choice, and symbolic boundary theory. While past studies assert that volunteering increases feelings of social integration, this empirical study offers a comparative perspective between immigrants who volunteer and those who do not. Study findings suggest that formal immigrant volunteers build a stronger sense of agency in their social integration journeys through their contributions to American society. Data suggest that most nonvolunteering participants achieve minor benefits by engaging in informal volunteering outside of organizational auspices.

In this paper, we analyse the interaction between immigrants’ employment in cooperatives and the business cycle. The study is centred on the Spanish economy during the period 2003–2015. The main goal of this paper is to answer the following two key questions: are fluctuations in immigrants’ employment in cooperatives cyclical in relation to the business cycle? And, are immigrant employees more vulnerable to the business cycle than native employees? The cycles and their turning points are identified using the Bry and Boschan (Cyclical analysis of time series: selected procedures and computer programmes, National Bureau of Economic Research, New York, 1971) algorithm. To resolve it we employ the BUSY software, developed by the European Commission. The procedure allows us to identify the features of the cycle phases and to calculate the synchronization index. The results show that (1) employment in cooperatives is procyclical and with no differences between immigrant and native workers, (2) the economic crisis has hit immigrant workers harder than native ones, (3) the immigrants’ birthplace is significant because some cyclical behaviour can be found to vary according to the immigrants’ origins; however, in general, sensitivity to the business cycle is the common factor.

Migration challenges how we think about justice and state sovereignty. This is no less the case for political theorists, and this review symposium focuses on the work of one of the foremost political theorists working on these questions today. In his latest book – Strangers in Our Midst: The Political Philosophy of Migration – David Miller argues for a realist approach to migration, an approach that takes into consideration not just what we ought to do, but also the actual possibilities of implementing justice. In this regard, the relationship between (im)migration and state sovereignty and democracy is central. Miller’s approach is a ‘political’ one that seeks to take into consideration the fact that we live in political communities with (more or less) shared values, and that these political communities cannot easily be disentangled from the liberal democratic institutions of these states. In their reviews of Miller’s book, Sarah Song, Annie Stilz and Kieran Oberman all take issues with particular aspects of Miller’s approach, while also accepting the general thrust to think about migration in the context of state and popular sovereignty.

Tamil immigrants in Canada face high rates of Type II Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) and significant barriers in accessing T2DM-related services. These barriers are often amplified for older adults, whose age-related needs intersect with cultural, linguistic, and socioeconomic factors. This study explored the lived experiences of Tamil older adults accessing T2DM-related health care services in the Greater Toronto Area. A qualitative interpretive description approach was used, involving in-depth semi-structured interviews with nine Tamil older adults. Participants were recruited through purposive and snowball sampling. Thematic analysis was applied, with findings organized using Levesque et al.’s framework (2013). Five key themes were identified: (1) timely and informed diabetes management, (2) reliance on trusted health service providers, (3) reliance on others for transportation, (4) financial factors, and (5) navigating health care through cultural and communication factors. Identified themes can inform potential solutions to improve access including centralized resource hubs, culturally tailored education programs, affordable transportation options, and an integrated health care approach.

Population ageing, increased immigration and strained public resources will challenge the future provision of formal older-age care. Despite growing diversity in older populations across Western countries, evidence on health-care utilization among older immigrants remains limited. Using full-population registry data from Norway (2011–2016) for individuals aged 60+, we examined transitions into home health care (HHC) and intensity of use (hours/day) by immigrant background. Across all country-of-origin groups, immigrants had lower odds of transitioning into HHC than natives, with differences narrowing as duration of residence increased. A broad socio-demographic patterning to HHC transitions generally held across the country background groupings. Higher transition likelihoods were observed for individuals with lower education, lower income, living alone, and residing in less urban areas. Childlessness was linked to higher relative transition propensities among natives and Nordic immigrants, but lower relative propensities among Western-origin and Eastern European immigrants. Among non-Western immigrants, childlessness appeared to have little influence on transition propensities. For HHC intensity, only non-Western immigrants received significantly fewer hours of care than natives. Subsequent analysis indicated that this difference was entirely contingent on living alone: Only non-Western immigrants living alone had significantly fewer hours of care than natives (living alone or otherwise). These findings highlight clear variation in HHC utilization by immigrant background and socio-demographic characteristics. Future research should investigate whether lower HHC use among older immigrants reflects reduced need or barriers to access. It will also be important to assess how compositional changes in the immigrant population may influence future patterns of HHC utilization.

Against the backdrop of debates about migrant integration in Western countries, this article examines the extent to which liberal democratic values differ between migrants and non-migrants in Europe and whether potential differences can be explained by socialisation in different political contexts. We measure specific values of liberal democracies using data from the European Social Survey, covering a large number of countries, and from the German Integration Barometer, covering a representative sample of migrants from different countries of origin. This allows us to investigate how structural political socialisation and indoctrination in more or less democratic regimes affect the democratic values of migrants and to what extent possible differences in values diminish when migrants from non-democratic countries settle in democratic countries. The analyses show that all three – non-migrants, migrants from more democratic countries, and migrants from less democratic countries – have high levels of liberal democratic values. At this elevated level, we additionally observe that longer periods of socialisation in less democratic countries of origin reduce, and longer periods in more democratic countries of destination increase, migrants’ support for liberal democratic values. Thus, we find support for socialisation and adaptation processes among immigrants in Europe, but these effects are relatively small.

This study examined the motivational factors influencing African immigrants in New Zealand to become entrepreneurs and the factors that ensured their business success. Data were collected from 117 participants through survey questions employing the Qualtrics platform and its link was sent to participants in the Auckland region. Auckland was decided on for data collection, being the most populated city and the business nerve centre of New Zealand. The research was conducted using a descriptive and quantitative approach. From the analysis, the study found that passion for business entrepreneurship, flexibility, financial independence, generic independence, autonomy, and being one’s own boss are the most highly motivational factors for influencing African immigrants in New Zealand to opt for business ownership. The study also found that the six highest-rated reasons for African immigrants’ entrepreneurial business success in New Zealand were readiness to make sacrifices to succeed, always giving the best in everything that had to be done, the importance of action, a belief that everything is possible if the entrepreneur believes he/she can do it, the challenge of taking on new projects, and learning lessons from past failure. These findings are the most important factors helping African immigrant business owners in New Auckland Zealand to attain entrepreneurial and business success. This research maintains that the results shed light on why African migrants adopt business entrepreneurship and gear themselves up for success in New Zealand.

We seek to unpack and complicate traditional findings of Black Americans’ ambivalent progressivism of immigrants and immigration by seriously considering gender as an analytic tool. Specifically, we aim to highlight how Black women’s political and social uniqueness contextualizes their perception of attitudes toward immigrants and immigration. We argue that Black women’s unique race and gendered experiences inform Black women’s attitudes and preferences regarding immigration and immigrants. Further, we take their heterogeneity seriously because Black women are not a monolith. Using the 2020 Collaborative Multiracial Post-election Survey (CMPS), we argue that perceptions of shared disadvantage, high levels of woman of color (WoC) linked fate and intersectional solidarity, and strong Democratic identification will positively influence African American women and Black immigrant women’s progressive attitudes toward immigrants and immigration compared to Black women who have lower levels of shared discrimination, WoC linked fate, intersectional solidarity, or have weak Democratic identification.

Legal status is an important social determinant of health. Immigration enforcement policies may be an important contributor to health disparities in the form of interior border checkpoints (IBCs). These checkpoints may prevent immigrants and their families from seeking needed medical care. Currently, we do not know how these barriers are perceived by the public. We administered a survey of 6,178 respondents from 13 November to 19 November of 2023 that contained a survey experiment to assess public attitudes on the issue. Respondents were generally not supportive of detaining individuals at IBCs or medical facilities for emergencies regardless of characteristics of the care-seeking individual. A majority was supportive of detention when medical treatment was complete. Respondents were generally more sympathetic towards children and pregnant women. Partisanship and sympathy expressed towards immigrants influenced attitudes towards detention. Findings based on race and ethnicity showed inconsistencies. A majority of Americans did not believe that IBCs should impede undocumented immigrants from accessing medical care, especially in emergency situations and for children and pregnant women. Our findings indicate that there is broad public support for expanding existing policies to allow for undocumented individuals to pass through IBCs to access medical care.

The social and political contexts in many countries are affected by dangerous trends and forces of populism. Populist hostility is most observable in connection with issues of immigration, where it functions as a pretext for scrapping legal protections in increasingly hostile immigration laws. What is particularly insidious about these developments is the claim, articulated by some theorists, that the popular resentment and backlash against immigrants and refugees are justified. That populists are hostile towards immigrants and human rights laws, the claim seems to go, is the fault of the legal norms and institutions that allow in the immigrants and protect them. This article challenges those approaches and argues that legal constraints on popular biases towards immigrants are necessary and need to be defended against popular moralism. It is also argued that although community values are important, they should not be considered as trumps against the rights of immigrants and refugees.