Proculturation shaped by social representations of academic migrants from Italy to the United States.

Introduction: Existing literature has highlighted the phenomenon of academic migrants leaving Italy for the United States with the hope of finding institutions that offer more opportunities for growth and recognition based on merit, as opposed to corruption, nepotism, and excessive bureaucracy. Likely, these may be the expectations of Italian academic migrants, who seem to be thriving and flourishing in their careers. This paper discusses proculturation of academic migrants from Italy to the United States, in the light of their expectations related to self-concept as well as social representations of North American university instructors from transnational families. Methods: In this study, 173 participants volunteered to provide information in an online survey that included their demographic profile, family situation, language ability, recalled pre-migration expectations and preparations, satisfaction with life, self-perceived stress, self-rated health, free responses to questions about major successes, challenges, and goals, as well as self-identification. Results: The results have shown that participants were indeed thriving in their careers and lives (majority scored high in satisfaction with life, health, realistic expectations and helpful per-migration preparations, while low in stress, also indicating work-related accomplishments and successes), but somewhat struggled with proculturation-related issues, frequently mentioned among major challenges.

Factors linked to accessing COVID-19 recommendations among working migrants.

OBJECTIVES: Guided by the Health Belief Model (HBM), this study explored factors associated with accessing COVID-19 health information. DESIGN/SAMPLE: A cross-sectional study design was used. SAMPLE: Migrants (n = 259) employed in Israel prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic were recruited. MEASUREMENTS: The on-line questionnaire included: The Satisfaction with Life Scale, the Brief Resilience Coping Scale and Immigrants' Language Ability scale. RESULTS: Migrants obtaining COVID-19 information when issued were more likely to have decreased employment or unemployment after COVID-19 government restrictions (OR = 1.98; CI = 1.03, 3.89; p < .05) and more likely to have a better language ability (OR = 1.20; CI = 1.10, 1.32, p < .0001), but they were less likely to use family and/or friends as their COVID-19 health resource (OR = 0.54, CI = 0.30, 0.96; p < .05). Migrants encountering the most employment difficulties were: female (p < .05), older age (p < .05), unmarried (p < .01), with unstable finances (p < .0001), and in Israel less than 5 years (p < .01). CONCLUSIONS: Migrants with more precarious employment had more societal disadvantage (i.e., women, older age, unmarried, poorer socioeconomic status, and newer migrants) and relied on informal and potentially inaccurate, health sources. Public health officials aiming to decrease COVID-19 infection must improve health information access to all members of society, particularly at-risk groups such as migrants.

Health literacy, resilience and perceived stress of migrants in Israel during the COVID-19 pandemic.

OBJECTIVE: To examine perceived stress in migrants guided by Bornstein's Specificity Principle in Acculturation Science (BSPAS) theoretical framework. DESIGN: Using a cross-sectional study, we recruited English-language migrants (n = 411) living in Israel to respond to an online questionnaire during the COVID-19 pandemic, from 3 April to 16 May 2020. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The dependent variable comprised the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) scores, which attained an internal consistency of 0.91 in this sample. RESULTS: PSS scores were related to lower age (p < 0.0001), being single (p = 0.0095), not possessing high (p = 0.0069) or medium resilience (p = 0.0002), reporting below average SES (p = 0.0196), being "extremely" worried about getting COVID-19 (p < 0.0001), and having high health literacy (p = 0.0007). Additionally, the interaction between health literacy and resilience (p < 0.0001) showed that migrants with high resilience and high health literacy had the lowest perceived stress; and migrants with low resilience and high health literacy had the highest perceived stress. CONCLUSIONS: Interventions are needed to assist migrants during the COVID-19 pandemic. The optimal intervention will aim to address the psychological distress while increasing both health literacy and resilience.

Immigrants' Health, Acculturation, and the Work-Retirement Continuum.

Although the link between immigrants' health status and employment is well established, there is little information on the combined impact of three components of acculturation (that is, dual self-identity, language proficiency, and realized expectations) on this link. Immigrants who came to Israel from English-speaking countries (N = 377) were categorized into three groups based on the work-retirement continuum (that is, working, same occupation; working, changed occupation; or retired). Using a cross-sectional design, this study examined whether the link between health and acculturation varied by immigrants' location on the work-retirement continuum. Bivariate analyses revealed group differences for two acculturation components, language proficiency (p < .0001) and dual self-identity (p < .05). Multivariable analyses indicated an interaction effect between the acculturation component of realized expectations and work-retirement continuum group status on health status. As a result, good health was related to higher levels of realized expectations for the retired group; related to lower levels of realized expectations for the "working, changed occupations" group; and unrelated to realized expectations for the "working, same occupation" group. The acculturation component of realized expectations varies depending on the immigrant's location on the work-retirement continuum. Health and social welfare professionals can promote health in working or retired immigrants by providing clear and realistic information to better align with immigrants' expectations.