Discourse on culture in research on immigrant and migrant workers’ health

Background Health and safety researchers and practitioners have proposed that cultural differences help explain inequalities between foreign and native‐born workers. While cultural explanations for inequalities have long been debated in other fields, there exists little critique of cultural discours...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:American journal of industrial medicine 2019-06, Vol.62 (6), p.460-470
Main Author: Premji, Stephanie
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
(im)migrants
causal mechanisms
critical discourse analysis
Cultural factors
Culture
Empirical analysis
Inequalities
Migrant workers
Occupational health
occupational health inequalities
Safety
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Summary:Background Health and safety researchers and practitioners have proposed that cultural differences help explain inequalities between foreign and native‐born workers. While cultural explanations for inequalities have long been debated in other fields, there exists little critique of cultural discourses in occupational health. Methods This article examines and discusses the discourse on culture in 107 articles on immigrant or migrant workers’ health published between 2011 and 2015. For each article, passages on culture were identified and analysed for both the context and the manner in which culture was discussed. Results The discourse on culture was found to be generally simplistic, individualistic, and uncritical, intentionally or unintentionally supporting the worldview that workers’ “otherness” is both cause of inequalities and target for interventions. Conclusion The article argues that empirical, theoretical and interdisciplinary work is needed to document the mechanisms and pathways that underlie health and safety inequalities by foreign‐born status.
ISSN:0271-3586
1097-0274
DOI:10.1002/ajim.22987