Health-Seeking Strategies among African Immigrant Women in Detroit

Regents Of The University Of Michigan - Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor MI

Investigators

Abstract

0089082 Bierwert & Hunt This pilot project studies how African women's health-seeking, reproductive and maternal strategies are changed due to migration to an urban context in the United States. Fertility is quite highly valued in Ghanaian and Nigerian cultures, the primary origins for most of the women in the study, and is somewhat less important in the US. Two cultural anthropologists will survey 600 immigrant households in Detroit, set up focus groups and select a sub-sample of women for in-depth interviews on how they negotiate their own health and reproductive needs, and those of their daughters, depending on their class status and social networks. The tension between values appropriate to the country-of-origin and values appropriate to the US will be studied as they affect cross-generation relationships. The nature of the social networks available to women of different socio-economic and educational backgrounds is hypothesized to be a major factor in their access to resources. The knowledge to be created by this project will be useful to help health professionals design programs to improve health and ameliorate problems of immigrant women.