Immigration can mean an escape from economic deprivation and hope for a better future, yet it can also lead to the loss of social networks, family, and community ties. People who migrate from countries and cultures where a sense of community has been an important part of how they perceive their world may be most affected by this change. The disruption and change that takes place in a peoples’ sense of community as they migrate from sociocentric cultures and adjust to life in the United States may be one of the reasons for increasing health disparities in these populations. The purpose of this study was to explore qualitatively the experience of immigration from the perspective of Latinas. A sense of community and its four components (membership, influence, integration and shared emotional connections) was used as the conceptual framework. Ten semi-structured interviews were conducted (8 in Spanish, 2 in English) with women from Mexico, Peru, Nicaragua and Puerto Rico who immigrated to a mid-sized, Midwestern city. The qualitative software of N*6 was used to analyze their experiences of immigration and its affect on their sense of community. Four processes were identified: 1) to reconcile the loss of their homeland sense of community; 2) to identify what impedes a new sense of community from developing; 3) to participate in what builds and develops the new sense of community; and 4) to learn to trust the new community’s influence on health and health promoting activities. The findings suggest the importance for nurses to address sense of community when conducting community-based health interventions with immigrant women.
Session #1223 - Graduate Student Poster Session
The 29th Annual MNRS Research Conference (April 1-4, 2005)