Encyclopedia of Immigrant Health, 2-Volume Set

There is increasing interest in the scientific literature on immigrant health and its impact on disease transmission, disease prevention, health promotion, well-being on an individual and population level, health policy, and the cost of managing all these issues on an individual, institutional, national, and global level. The need for accurate and up-to-date information is particularly acute due to the increasing numbers of immigrants and refugees worldwide as the result of natural disasters, political turmoil, the growing numbers of immigrants to magnet countries, and the increasing costs of associated health care that are being felt by governments around the world.

Format and Scope:

The first portion of the Encyclopedia will contain chapters that are approximately 25 to 40 manuscript pages in length. Each overview chapter will include a list of references and suggested readings for cross referencing within the Encyclopedia.

Currently, the opening chapters are planned to be: Immigration in the Global Context, Research Methods for immigrant populations, Ethical consideration for minority groups, Immigration Processes, Alternative / Complementary Medicine, Occupational and Environmental health, Legal Considerations.

The second portion of the book will consist of alphabetical entries that relate to the health of immigrants. To date, we have identified about 400 entries and expect that the number will increase as we work on the text.

Entries will be interdisciplinary and will be drawn from the following fields of study: anthropology, demographics, history, law, linguistics, medicine, population studies, psychology, religion, and sociology. Each entry will be followed by a listing of suggested readings and suggested resources, and will also link to related terms within the whole.

My co-editor and I are corresponding with the field editors to determine the length of each entry. Some only require a small amount of space. But other entries will be quite extensive. There will be small, medium and long entries.
We anticipate that the final manuscript will consist of at least 2,000 typed pages. According to Michaela Bilic and Bill Tucker, we should count on the work being printed PTO and estimate it at 3 volumes, but we are open to it being longer and accept that more terms may be added during the development phase of the project.

Outstanding Features

The book will adopt a biopsychosocial-historical approach to the topics covered in the chapters and the entries. Each entry will include suggested readings and suggested resources. The chapters and entries will be written graduate level that is accessible to all academics, researchers, and professionals from diverse backgrounds. We consider the audience for the entries to be well educated, but a non expert in this area. The primary focus of the book will be on the immigrant populations in and immigration to magnet countries. References will be made to worldwide trends and issues arising globally.

In addition to the comprehensive subject coverage offered by the proposed reference, the text will also offer diverse perspectives. The editors themselves reflect the multidisciplinary nature of the topics, with expertise in psychiatry, law, epidemiology, anthropology, and social work. Prospective authors similarly reflect diverse disciplines.