Occupational and Sociocultural Temporal Identity Integration: Links to Overall Health for Muslim-Heritage Immigrants to the United States

Abstract

This study examines the association between temporal identity integration, or how identity is integrated across time, and perceived health for new Muslim immigrants to the United States using the publicly available New Immigrant Survey. We examined the content of identity in the occupational and sociocultural domains. These two content areas are important aspects of the immigration transition and are influenced by the context of Islamophobia. We examined the association of changes across the occupational and sociocultural domains from pre-to-post immigration with four different indicators of health (e.g., current health, change in health, emotional health, and physical health) for 444 Muslim-heritage immigrants. Findings suggest overall perceived health of new Muslim immigrants was good. Hypotheses were partially supported where results suggest small, yet significant, associations between changes in occupational status, English use, and similarity of diet with health indicators. The results emphasize the need to further explore other constructs that are relevant to health for Muslim immigrants in a post-9/11 era.