Yoosun Park

Place of birth, duration of residence, neighborhood immigrant composition and body mass index in New York City

BackgroundPast research has suggested that changes in culture explain the substantial weight gain seen in many immigrant groups with length of residence in the U.S. and across generations of residence in the U.S. However, it has been theorized that those settling in immigrant and co-ethnic neighborhoods may be buffered against this acculturative process and will be more likely to maintain home country dietary and physical activity patterns. To investigate this theory we incorporated measures of neighborhood immigrant composition into analyses of individuals body mass index (BMI) and generation of immigration and duration of residence in the U.S.MethodsMultilevel analyses were performed using objectively measured height and weight and survey data on diet and physical activity from a sample of 13,011 residents of New York City. Census data were used to calculate the proportion of foreign-born residents and extent of household linguistic isolation in a ½ mile radial buffer around the subjects home.ResultsForeign birth was associated with a significantly lower BMI (-1.09 BMI units, P < 0.001). This association was weakest among Asians (-0.66 BMI units, P = 0.08) and strongest among Black-Caribbeans (-1.41 BMI units, P = 0.07). After controlling for individual level variables, neighborhood proportion foreign-born was not associated with BMI, but increasing neighborhood linguistic isolation was inversely associated with BMI among Hispanics (-2.97 BMI units, P = 0.03). Furthermore among Hispanics, the association between foreign birth and BMI was stronger in low linguistic isolation neighborhoods (-1.36 BMI units, P < 0.0001) as compared to in high linguistic isolation levels (-0.42 BMI units, P = 0.79). Increasing duration of residence in the U.S. was significantly associated with higher BMI overall and among Hispanics.ConclusionThe analyses suggest that acculturation is associated with weight gain, and that neighborhood characteristics are only associated with BMI among Hispanics. However, we suggest that changes in body size currently interpreted as post-migration effects of acculturation to U.S. norms may in fact reflect changes in norms that are taking place internationally.

Personal and neighborhood socioeconomic status and indices of neighborhood walk-ability predict body mass index in New York City

Past research has observed inverse associations between neighborhood and personal level measures of socioeconomic status and body mass index (BMI), but has not assessed how personal and neighborhood-level measures might interact together to predict BMI. Using a sample of 13,102 adult residents of New York City who participated in a health survey, cross-sectional multi-level analyses assessed whether personal income, education and Zip code-level poverty rates were associated with BMI. Demographic, income, education and objectively measured height and weight data were collected in the survey and poverty rates and the proportion of Black and Hispanic residents in the subjects Zip code were retrieved from the 2000 Census. Zip code-level population density and land use mix, indices of neighborhood walk-ability which are often higher in lower income neighborhoods and are associated with lower BMI, were also measured. After controlling for individual and Zip code-level demographic characteristics, increasing income was associated with lower BMI in women but not in men, and college and graduate level education was associated with lower BMI in both men and women. After control for income and individual and Zip code-level demographic characteristics, higher Zip code poverty rate was unassociated with BMI. However, as expected, indices of neighborhood walk-ability acted as substantial inverse confounders in the relationship between Zip code poverty rate and BMI. After further adjustment for indices of neighborhood walk-ability, Zip code poverty rate became significantly, and positively associated with BMI in women. Among women, the inverse association between income and BMI was significantly stronger in richer compared to poorer Zip codes. In men and women, the association between college and graduate education and lower BMI was significantly stronger in richer versus poorer Zip codes. These analyses suggest that neighborhood socioeconomic context influences how personal socioeconomic status interact in predicting boby size.

Neighbourhood immigrant acculturation and diet among Hispanic female residents of New York City

OBJECTIVE To identify predominant dietary patterns among Hispanic women and to determine whether adherence to dietary patterns is predicted by neighbourhood-level factors: linguistic isolation, poverty rate and the retail food environment. DESIGN Cross-sectional analyses of predictors of adherence to dietary patterns identified from principal component analysis of data collected using the Study of Womens Health Across the Nation FFQ. Census data were used to measure poverty rates and the percentage of Spanish-speaking families in the neighbourhood in which no person aged ≥14 years spoke English very well (linguistic isolation) and the retail food environment was measured using business listings data. SETTING New York City. SUBJECTS A total of 345 Hispanic women. RESULTS Two major dietary patterns were identified: a healthy dietary pattern loading high for vegetables, legumes, potatoes, fish and other seafood, which explained 17 % of the variance in the FFQ data and an energy-dense dietary pattern loading high for red meat, poultry, pizza, french fries and high-energy drinks, which explained 9 % of the variance in the FFQ data. Adherence to the healthy dietary pattern was positively associated with neighbourhood linguistic isolation and negatively associated with neighbourhood poverty. Presence of more fast-food restaurants per square kilometre in the neighbourhood was significantly associated with lower adherence to the healthy diet. Adherence to the energy-dense dietary pattern was inversely, but not significantly, associated with neighbourhood linguistic isolation. CONCLUSIONS These results are consistent with the hypothesis that living in immigrant enclaves is associated with healthy dietary patterns among Hispanics.

“Little Alien Colonies”: Representations of Immigrants and Their Neighborhoods in Social Work Discourse, 1875–1924

The “vexed problem of immigration,” as Jane Addams (1909, 214) termed it, became a central issue for the emerging social work profession. Through a close reading of social work’s public documents in the period from 1875 to 1924, this article analyzes the complex discursive mechanisms by which early social workers made immigrants and their environments legible as objects of intervention and advocacy. In particular, it examines the parallel social and moral calculi employed in social work’s analysis of immigrants and their “little alien colonies” (e.g., Greenleigh 1941, 208). Despite good intentions, social workers often viewed immigrants as dependent, abject, and exotic subjects; at a deeper register than their expressed interest in “the needs and possibilities of the immigrant” (Abbott 1917, 282), social work representations underscored and supported the problematization of immigrants in the public discourse. Contemporary social work faces many of the same dilemmas in fashioning a response to immigration.

Constructing Immigrants A Historical Discourse Analysis of the Representations of Immigrants in US Social Work, 1882-1952

Summary: This study analyzes the representations of immigrants found in three US social work periodicals published between 1882 and 1952. Beginning from Foucault’s notion of the ‘history of the present’, an approach to history which examines the past in order to illuminate a present-day problematic, and using textual analysis techniques provided by Jacques Derrida, this work of historical discourse analysis traces the discursive constructions of identity through which immigrants were problematized as particular kinds of subjects in social work discourse. Findings: The immigrant objects of social work attention - subjects subjugated through the discourse of problematization - were discursive inventions. But the differential valuations which constructed individual immigrants or whole ‘races’ of immigrants as ‘desirable’ or ‘undesirable’ were consequential markers invoking vastly unequal material consequences for those so categorized. Social workers, as significant producers of discourses of immigrants, had and do have a much greater range of influence and responsibility than that with which we were and still are wont to credit ourselves. Application: In making visible the discursive practices of the past, this paper seeks to clarify the task of present-day social workers: to uncover the margins and the limits of the discourses that construct our troubled times.

Facilitating Injustice: Tracing the Role of Social Workers in the World War II Internment of Japanese Americans

Nearly the whole of the Japanese American population of the United States was incarcerated by the federal government during World War II. Although the history of the internment is well documented, social work’s involvement remains unexamined. This article traces the role of social workers in that history, showing how they facilitated all aspects of the process. The forgotten history traced here may prompt a reconsideration of how social work has made sense of its professional obligations and its professional ethics. The events may also induce the profession to examine how it now should conceptualize its role in facilitating problematic social policies.

Whom Should We Serve? A Discourse Analysis of Social Workers’ Commentary on Undocumented Immigrants

We present a discourse analysis of social work practitioners’ commentaries on undocumented immigrants that were collected from a survey of practicing social workers’ attitudes toward immigration and immigrants. Analyzing 198 open-ended comments, we explore the discursive mechanisms practitioners employ to construct undocumented immigrants, and their professional responsibilities toward them. These views are illustrative of the ways in which the profession determines inclusion and exclusion, writ large in national immigration policies and laws and played out in the arenas of social work and social services. Disparate views of practitioners highlight tensions in the professions relationships to law and social policies as well as to its own ethics and identity.

The Role of the YWCA in the World War II Internment of Japanese Americans: A Cautionary Tale for Social Work

The Young Women’s Christian Organization’s work on behalf of approximately 120,000 Japanese Americans incarcerated in federal relocation camps during World War II was progressive in its vision of racial equality and courageous in its proactive, vocal consistency. The YWCA was unique among social work organizations in seeing the internment as an ethical, moral, and political challenge to the profession and to the national democracy. In its conviction of the necessity for assimilation, however, the YWCA functionally supported the racist stances it opposed: the military’s rationale for the internment and Americanization schemes of eras past. Using primary archival records, this study outlines the scope of the YWCA’s work and analyzes its well-intentioned but problematic role in the history of the internment. The history makes clear that even the deeds of conscientious and skilled individuals are not necessarily free of bias and partiality. This analysis seeks to bring this lesson to the fore.

Feminism in These Dangerous Times

At this pivotal time for Affilia, we first give thanks to the journal’s outgoing editors in chief, Dr. Noël Busch-Armendariz and Dr. Deb Ortega, for their peerless leadership during a period of growth and rising impact for the journal. Among their many accomplishments was the establishment of the consulting board of editors, an expansion of the existing editorial board structure that allowed the journal to effectively manage the volume of submissions which doubled during their tenure. Perhaps more importantly, the addition of new consulting board members widened the breadth of contentspecific knowledge within the board structure while ensuring that feminist principles in social work guided the review of manuscript. With the able support of associate editor Dr. Susan Chandler and editorial assistants Lindsay Morris, Karin Wachter, and Laurie Cook Heffron, they established a well-ordered system that resulted in both a more timely and rigorous peer-review process. Their success in upholding the journal’s commitment to feminist leadership was demonstrated in their steadfast provision of collaborative mentorship to junior and mid-career feminist scholars as well as the creation of the Distinguished Feminist Scholarship and Praxis in Social Work Award to focus well-deserved attention to excellence in feminist scholarship. Last and not least, the powerful, topical editorials they generated issue after issue challenged us to expand the limits of feminist praxis. We will sincerely miss their collective wisdom and unfailing comradeship.

“A Curious Inconsistency” The Discourse of Social Work on the 1922 Married Women’s Independent Nationality Act and the Intersecting Dynamics of Race and Gender in the Laws of Immigration and Citizenship

The Cable Act of 1922 provided for the first time in U.S. history, independent citizenship for married women. Henceforth, a woman’s citizenship was a status separate from her husband’s. A victory for activists, including many prominent social workers who had long-pursued equal political status for women, the Cable Act benefited many but not all women. Using primary archival data and published social work writings from the era, this study analyzes how prominent immigrant-serving social workers responded to the Cable Act, and the bifurcated sets of raced and gendered biases that shaped this and other policies and practices of immigration and citizenship.