PROJECTS

Policy on the Frontlines: Narrative Research for Immigrant Well-being

Client: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

With funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Leah Zallman Center for Immigrant Health Research (LZC) is conducting applied research on the role of narratives in shaping frontline workers’ implementation of policies that advance immigrant inclusion and well-being. In partnership with the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition (MIRA) and in consultation with Wonder: Strategies for Good, LZC identified primary healthcare as our area of focus for an in-depth case study. LZC hired four community researchers, who will co-facilitate focus groups with primary healthcare workers to test the ability of strategic data and messaging to influence a shift in ideologies, based on findings from Wonder’s landscape review and media audit. At a later stage, the research team will facilitate focus groups with immigrant families in Massachusetts to vet the messages developed through this research. LZC will also model the impacts of recent policy changes on the healthcare workforce and the economic contributions of immigrants to Medicare. With MIRA, LZC will disseminate the tested narrative, data tools, and main results of this study to key audiences in Massachusetts.