The Well-Being of Asian Immigrants in the United Sates: An Intersectional Analysis

Background

Although, Asian immigrants are a heterogeneous conglomeration of over 20 subgroups unique by linguistic, cultural, sociodemographic, and migration histories, health priorities often overlook sub-population differences within this population. Further, immigrant health research has focused on acculturation based individual centered interventions, ignoring the structural contexts that are likely to produce social and economic inequities affecting immigrant well-being across sub-populations. The purpose of our study was to examine the overlapping effects of gender, race/ethnicity, and class that arise from individual’s position in a society on the overall well-being of Asian sub-populations. We hypothesized that there will be significant moderation effects between gender, race/ethnicity, and class on immigrant well-being among Asian sub-populations.

Methods

We used an Asian immigrant only data with adult sample (N=3,363, 8 ethnic groups) that included randomly selected respondents age 18 years and above from the 2012 California Health Interview Survey (CHIS). Accounting for elements of sampling design such as stratification, clustering, and raking adjustments, we incorporated the complex survey design of the CHIS dataset. We used the survey weight and 80 replicate weights created using the jackknife delete-2 method in the computation of four phased statistical analysis using Stata SE v.14. including descriptive, bi-variate correlation, confirmatory factor analysis of the well-being measure, and hierarchical regression with intersectional analysis exploring main effects and interaction effects.

Results

Although, Asian women were more likely to have higher well-being levels (β= .174, p<.05) than Asian men (β= .113, p<.05), when class was added to the mix, results showed lower well-being for women. Higher class showed greater expected difference between Asian men and Asian women. More particularly, the middle class effect was notoriously significant for women (FPL 2 women β= -.284, p<.05) than men (FPL 2 men: β= -.221, p<.05) and even higher (FPL 3 women β= -.24, p<.05). These results showed stark differences in gender and class relationships showing that while poor men and non-poor women were similar, the poorest women and men were more like each other. Across Asian sub-populations, gender, race/ethnicity and class were significant among Japanese, Chinese, and Korean men. These results suggested race/ethnicity, class and gender were important factors and not only should gender be studied in addition to class or race, but being able to study the intersections showed how race/ethnicity and class appeared to work through gender.

Conclusion

The study provides implications for using intersectionality theory, crucial to health equity work to explore a complete and nuanced understanding of health determinants. With the increasing feminization of migration, gender cannot be used as a single analytic framework without also exploring how issues of race, migration status, history, and social class come to bear on one’s experience as a woman. This study is significant in expanding theoretical and methodological advancement of health equity research in achieving equal opportunity, equity, and justice, providing critical implications for using intersectionality in health frameworks, and policy implications for data disaggregation among sub-populations such as the Asian immigrants.