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Introduction: The city of New Brunswick, NJ sits at one end of a transnational migration stream that begins in southern Mexico. Following an unprecedented influx of immigrants in the 2000s, 40 % of the current full-time residents of New Brunswick are immigrant families from the poorest indigenous Mexican states, especially Oaxaca. Many of these immigrants are of indigenous ancestry, undocumented, and have limited access to health care services. In the spirit of transnational unity, Rutgers University established a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in 2009 with the State University of Oaxaca (SUNEO), Mexico to facilitate future academic and research cooperation and collaboration. Since that time, there have been a number of partnerships between the two schools developed to foster a greater understanding of issues concerning immigration health.
Program Development: In 2003 and 2008, Rutgers University sponsored two bi-national conferences with faculty from SUNEO to discuss issues of health across borders. Rutgers then reached out to leaders of New Brunswick's Mexican community, who subsequently developed relationships with faculty and staff of various departments and schools at Rutgers. In 2008, Dr. D’Alonzo partnered with Lazos America Unida, a community based organization, in a NIH-funded research study to train local Mexican immigrant women as promotoras de salud to facilitate a physical activity intervention for immigrant women. Dr. D’Alonzo also worked with the Mexican Consulate of New York and the National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI) to train men as promotores, to work with the Consulate to develop primary prevention programs to combat depression among immigrant Mexican men in NJ. In 2014, Rutgers faculty and students travelled to Oaxaca for the first Study Abroad trip. It was during this trip that tentative plans for a collaborative research project were introduced. Grant proposals have been submitted which would permit a small group of nursing students from SUNEO to visit Rutgers in the fall of 2015 and study with Rutgers students who plan to travel to Oaxaca in the spring of 2016.
Research and Learning Opportunities: Noting rapid weight gain among these Oaxacan immigrant women following immigration to the US, Dr. D’Alonzo developed plans to conduct a pilot binational study to explore the effects of acculturation stress on weight gain and allostatic load among Oaxacan immigrant women in NJ. Four students in the SUNEO nursing program
References:
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Ford, E.S. Li, C. & Zhao, G. (2010). Prevalence and correlates of metabolic syndrome based on a harmonious definition among adults in the US. Journal of Diabetes, 2, 180–193
Kaplan, M.S., Huguet, N., Newsom, J.T., & McFarland, B.H. (2004). The association between length of residence and obesity among Hispanic immigrants. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 27(4):323-6.