Migration and Knowledge Grant uri icon

abstract

  • (Project Director/ Co-Principal Investigator with Patricia Zamudio-Grave, Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropolog�a Social (Center of Investigations and Advanced Studies in Social Anthropology), Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico Raquel Isaula, Red de Desarrollo Sostenible de Honduras (Network for Sustainable Development of Honduras), Tegucigalpa, Honduras). $98,909. National Science Foundation. August 15, 2007  July 31, 2010.
  • North Carolina?s Latino population has been one of the fastest growing in the United States, with over a 400% increase during the 1990s and similar growth expected for the 2000 to 2010 period. Originally, much of this growth came from the settlement of former migrant farmworkers in rural communities across the state, facilitated by rural industry such as meat packing and poultry processing. More recently, however, the growth has been supplemented by high fertility rates among settled Latina women, creating a demand for maternal health services. Migrant Latinos continue to pass through the state on a seasonal basis, and both settled and migrant Latinas share important and pressing maternal health needs. Research addressing the perceptions of health care among Latinos in North Carolina can assist health care providers?including promatoras or community health care advisors?in reaching this population more effectively. Scientific Merit of the Proposed Research This project will compare perceptions of prenatal health among migrant, seasonal agricultural working Latinas to those of settled Latina women in Eastern North Carolina. It will identify perceived barriers to access to prenatal health and behaviors that may contribute to factors such as high infant mortality and variations in average child birth weights, specifically examining how the settlement process (i.e., settling out of agriculture) influences maternal and prenatal health. It will contribute to our understandings of the complexities of the settlement process among migrants and its consequences for health, thus contributing to the literature on migration/ immigrant settlement processes as well as medical social science. Broader Impacts of the Proposed Research This project will build on current efforts in ECU?s Department of Anthropology to establish greater legitimacy among and tighter connections with North Carolina?s growing Latino population. This work is especially necessary in Eastern North Carolina, where large numbers of Latinos have settled and large numbers continue to migrate through the region to work in tobacco, blueberries, sweet potatoes, and other short-term, seasonal harvests. The project is linked the Dr. David Griffith?s ongoing research among Latino immigrants living in the state and his current NSF-funded project on Migration and Knowledge in Honduras and Mexico. ECU?s Anthropology Department?s commitment to continued research and outreach among North Carolina?s Latino community is profiled on the website of the Department?s Nuevo South Initiative (www.ecu.edu/cs-cas/anth/nuevosouth), and includes health research among Latinos to foster the development of a network of promatoras who will benefit from increased knowledge of Latina perceptions of prenatal health care.

date/time interval

  • August 2007 - July 2011