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In the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic The National Resource Center for Refugees, Immigrants and Migrants (NRC-RIM) was established. NRC-RIM initially sought to rapidly identify promising case investigation and contact tracing (CICT) practices within refugee, immigrant, and migrant communities. Between September 2020 and April 2021, the team conducted 60 interviews with individuals from cross-sector organizations (i.e., public health, health systems, community experts/organizations) working with refugee, immigrant and migrant communities in health and public health capacities related to COVID-19. The overarching aim was to identify and amplify innovative promising and best practices for CICT with refugee, immigrant, and migrant communities, including an exploration of barriers and facilitators. We utilized layered methods to rapidly assess, summarize and disseminate promising practices while simultaneously completing four thematic analyses including: (1) public health organizations; (2) health system organizations; (3) community leaders and organizations; and (4) vaccine planning and access across the three sectors. The primary objective of this article is to describe the project design, applied methods, and team science approach we utilized. We found that rapid identification and dissemination of promising practices, and barriers and facilitators for CICT with refugee, immigrant and migrant communities was feasible during a public health emergency. This approach was essential for identifying and widely sharing culturally and linguistically concordant public health practices.

ObjectivesTo understand public health organizations’ experiences providing comprehensive COVID-19 case investigation and contact tracing, and related promising practices with refugee, immigrant and migrant communities.MethodsWe interviewed public health professionals (September 2020 to February 2021) from local and state health departments using a geographically stratified, purposive sampling approach. A multidisciplinary team at the National Resource Center for Refugees, Immigrants and Migrants (NRC-RIM) conducted a thematic analysis of the data.ResultsSix themes were identified: understanding community and public health context, cultivating relationships, ensuring linguistic and cultural concordance, communicating intentionally, evolving response, and implementing equity. The interconnection of themes and promising practices is explored.ConclusionAs public health continues to learn from and build upon COVID-19 response experiences, the thematic findings and potential promising practices identified in this project may foster proactive, community-engaged solutions for public health, and other organizations working and partnering with refugee, immigrant, and migrant communities. Implementing these findings with COVID-19 into current and future public health crisis responses may improve public health, collaborations with refugee, immigrant, and migrant communities, and staff wellbeing.

This article is part of the Research Topic ‘Health Systems Recovery in the Context of COVID-19 and Protracted Conflict’IntroductionRefugee, immigrant and migrant (hereafter referred to as “immigrant”) communities have been inequitably affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. There is little data to help us understand the perspectives of health systems on their role, in collaboration with public health and community-based organizations, in addressing inequities for immigrant populations. This study will address that knowledge gap.MethodsThis qualitative study used semi-structured video interviews of 20 leaders and providers from health systems who cared for immigrant communities during the pandemic. Interviewees were from across the US with interviews conducted between November 2020–March 2021. Data was analyzed using thematic analysis methods.ResultsTwenty individuals representing health systems participated with 14 (70%) community health centers, three (15%) county hospitals and three (15%) academic systems represented. The majority [16 health systems (80%)] cared specifically for immigrant communities while 14 (70%) partnered with refugee communities, and two (10%) partnered with migrant farm workers. We identified six themes (with subthemes) that represent roles health systems performed with clinical and public health implications. Two foundational themes were the roles health systems had building and maintaining trust and establishing intentionality in working with communities. On the patient-facing side, health systems played a role in developing communication strategies and reducing barriers to care and support. On the organizational side, health systems collaborated with public health and community-based organizations, in optimizing pre-existing systems and adapting roles to evolving needs throughout the pandemic.ConclusionHealth systems should focus on building trusting relationships, acting intentionally, and partnering with community-based organizations and public health to handle COVID-19 and future pandemics in effective and impactful ways that center disparately affected communities. These findings have implications to mitigate disparities in current and future infectious disease outbreaks for immigrant communities who remain an essential and growing population in the US.

Formal and informal bilingual/bicultural organizations and networks form the backbone of support for refugee, immigrant, and migrant (RIM) communities in the United States. They are pivotal in mitigating barriers and inequities in social and structural determinants of health. These organizations and networks are situated within the communities they serve, and often are established and run by members of a community, to serve the community. In the United States, the COVID-19 pandemic surfaced and widened existing health inequities for some racial and ethnic communities. Our primary objectives were to: (1) describe the processes that underpinned the pivotal role of immigrant-serving community structures in developing and implementing culturally sustaining programming in the context of pandemic response, and (2) amplify the voices of community experts, as they shared experiences and perspectives around these humanistic and community-centered approaches. We applied a community case study approach to a national sample of RIM-serving community structures representing broad country/region-of-origin, cultural, and linguistic identities. Community engagement strategies utilized in the project period included engaging community partners to identify and facilitate connections, and consult on analysis and dissemination. The project team conducted 20 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample of community experts/community organizations. Sampling strategy was further informed by immigrant identity (i.e., characterization of status) and geography (i.e., United States Department of Health & Human Services, Office of Intergovernmental and External Affairs Regions). Through thematic analysis, results identified key contextual, process-, and impact-oriented themes inherent to community-led COVID-19 responses, that were situated within and around the public and health system response to the pandemic. As public health and health systems scrambled to address acute and unprecedented barriers to access, distribution of COVID-19-related health resources and services, and disparate health outcomes, community structures diligently and intentionally reimagined and reconceptualized their response to COVID-19, frequently in the setting of scarce resources. The grassroots response evolved as a counter-narrative to top–down equity processes, historically defined by systems and applied to the community.