Community-Based Participatory Research Partnerships in Quantitative Studies on Migrants: An Integrative Review

Objective: This integrative study reviewed quantitative community-based participatory research (CBPR) studies on adult migrant populations and examined CBPR partnerships with community representatives. Method: The search identified relevant studies via MEDLINE, the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, and PsychInfo databases. Results: From the original 476 studies identified, a final sample of 26 studies focusing on migrants' health and health care was selected. CBPR community representatives were comprised of members of the public or staff recruited from a variety of sites (e.g., churches, hospitals). The ethnicity of community representatives matched the respondents of the target population in all studies, but few studies (n = 3) reported the migrant status (e.g., refugees) of the study sample. Conclusions: Although immigration status is among the societal characteristics that can lead to discrimination (i.e., intersectionality), this integrative review found that the majority of CBPR studies targeting migrants either did not specify the type of migrant group included or combined disparate migrant groups (e.g., migrants with and without documentation). Terms such as migrants, refugees, and immigrants were used interchangeably. Careful attention must be paid to the selection of community representatives to better represent the population of interest.