ASU Recent Publications
Dr Gauri Bhattacharya, ASU Social Work Department, has been busy with publications related to Indian immigrants to the United States. In one of his recently published papers, he describes some significant implications for the older adults in this population and immigrant health policies.
Dr Bhattacharya and co-author Dr Tazuko Shibusawa published “Experience of aging among immigrants from India to the United States: Social Work practice in a global context,” in the peer-reviewed international Journal of Gerontological Social Work, July 2009, Vol. 52, pp: 445-462. In this article, they examined aging of immigrants as a critical component in the health dynamics of the nation’s aging population. Using the life-span development perspective, the authors analyzed the impact of globalization and transnational connections on the aging experiences of two sub groups within the Indian-American community. These two subgroups were Indians who came to the United State
s at age 65 or older (LLIs) and those who came at an earlier (ELIs) age. Although the groups share the same ethnic/cultural identity and age range, their experiences of aging differed in terms of their education, work experience in the US, understanding of the US health care system and available health care services. According to this study’s findings, community-based health promotion programs need to focus on intra-group diversity, pre- and post-immigration sociocultural environments, health and illness beliefs and the extent of social networking in global and transnational contexts in order to understand the different pathways that aging dynamics may take.