All Are Welcome Here.
This guide serves to both educate and call attention to the immigrant experience, both historically and currently. Each tab of the guide calls attention to some aspect of immigration, from historical immigration to current immigration patterns and health disparities. Below, a guide to key terms that you will encounter throughout this guide.
Generally speaking, an immigrant is a person who has no U.S. citizenship at birth. Often this term is used interchangeably with foreign-born. Refugees and asylees are considered immigrants, but so are other population groups like naturalized citizens and lawful permanent residents. Immigrants have no U.S. citizenship at birth.
A refugee is a person who "owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country." Refugee status is appointed abroad.
Asylee status pertains to an individual residing in the United States as a result of a well-founded fear of persecution in the individual’s country because of race, religion, ethnic group, or social group. Asylee status is appointed after arrival in the U.S.
Crista Johnson-Agbakwu, MD, is the inaugural executive director of the new UMass Chan Medical School Collaborative in Health Equity. Dr. Johnson-Agbawku, professor of obstetrics & gynecology and population & quantitative health sciences, is an accomplished physician who has focused her career on reducing the disparities between social determinants of health and health care.
This talk was planned in conjunction with the National Library of Medicine traveling exhibit, "Outside/Inside: Immigration, Migration, and Health Care in the United States," hosted at the UMass Chan Medical School Lamar Soutter Library March 13 - April 22, 2023.