Our research
Research in the Migrant and Refugee Research Centre focuses on advancing knowledge and practice to enhance the health and wellbeing of migrant and refugee populations. Our research is interdisciplinary, involving experts from a range of fields.
Current research projects
Applying complexity science to improve outcomes for migrants and refugees during pandemics (2024-2025)
Migrants and refugees face a myriad of challenges as they settle in a new country, including language barriers, cultural differences, and limited access to employment and health services. During the COVID-19 pandemic, migrant and refugee background communities were disproportionately impacted, as infectious disease outbreaks can amplify these existing inequities. Traditional approaches dominated by linearity, reduction, and predictability continue to prevail in health service and public health research. Moreover, pandemic planning continues to be informed by Western knowledge and command-and-control models. In contrast, complexity-informed approaches recognise dynamic relationships, unpredictability, and uncertainty within systems. To the applicant’s knowledge, research in this area is very limited, and no work to date has applied complexity science to improving pandemic outcomes among migrants and refugees. This programme will harness the principles of complexity science to improve pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response, focusing on migrants and refugees who are often overlooked in preparedness efforts. Narratives will be qualitatively collected from multiple stakeholders, including community members, organisation leaders, and pandemic planners, to analyse the interconnected factors and produce complexity-informed recommendations that reflect the realities of migrants and refugees over the phases of a pandemic. It is
anticipated that the outcomes of this programme will inform improvements to pandemic preparedness plans to support better outcomes for migrants and refugees during future pandemics. Given the disproportionate burden faced by Māori and Pacific peoples during pandemics, the results may also support improved outcomes as the focus is on more equitable and inclusive pandemic preparedness and response.
Funded by:
Te Niwha (ESR & University of Otago, provisioned by MBIE)
Researchers:
Nadia Charania
Beyond the pandemic: applying complexity science in child immunisation services (2024-2027)
Routine childhood immunisation rates have been suboptimal and have further decreased since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, thereby exacerbating preexisting immunisation inequities by ethnicity and region. It is imperative to improve coverage, particularly for children of Māori and Pacific ethnicities and those with migrant and refugee backgrounds. Mātauranga Māori and complexity-informed designs offer a promising framework to explore dynamic relationships, unpredictability, and uncertainty within a health system. This multi-method research, underpinned by complexity science and informed by kaupapa Māori and Talanoa principles, will quantitatively and qualitatively analyse the interconnected factors influencing childhood immunisation uptake. By understanding which children are missing out and why from
multiple perspectives, we can inform ways forward for equitable immunisation services that are also resilient to future health shocks.
Funded by:
The Health Research Council of New Zealand
Researchers:
Nadia Charania, Gail Pacheco, Daysha Tonumaipe'a, Amber Young, Felicity Ware, Leon Iusitini, Thomas Schober, Tony Dowell
Designing, implementing, and evaluating an online educational programme for health professionals on immunising people with migrant and refugee backgrounds (2020-2025)
Migrants and refugees generally have lower immunisation rates compared to their host populations. Health care professionals (HCPs) play a vital role in delivering immunisation to migrants and refugees, and positive recommendations from providers are a significant influencer on vaccine uptake. However, HCPs require training around the specific immunisation concerns and questions people may have, especially those with migrant and refugee backgrounds. While there are training programmes for health professionals to become vaccinators, specific initiatives for educating health providers regarding the immunisation needs of migrants and refugees are limited. To address this, we are developing an online educational programme for health providers that will provide training in assessing the immunisation needs of migrants and refugees, including the need for catch-up vaccinations, across all age groups with the overall aim of improving uptake of vaccines among these groups.
Funded by:
The Health Research Council of New Zealand
Researchers:
Abela Mahimbo, Ikran Abdi, Holly Seale, Anita Heywood, Nadia Charania, Preeti Tiwari
Our research clusters
The Migrant and Refugee Research Centre has a cluster that focuses on mental health and wellbeing for migrant and refugee communities in Aotearoa. The cluster comprises an interdisciplinary community of researchers dedicated to advancing knowledge and practice related to mental health promotion and improving access to acceptable services. The cluster is committed to the articles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, in particular to consider whose voice informs research, how research supports equity and how research is experienced to support mana and wairua. Our research is in partnership with community from design to dissemination.
Mental health access is key as refugee and migrant groups can have higher needs in terms of mental health. People who have experienced forced displacement, for example, unsurprisingly have increased diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder. Mental health service access is challenging due to a lack of understanding of varied cultural understandings of wellbeing, and an expectation that people adopt a Western understanding of mental illness. Community-based solutions that are trauma informed and human rights-based are key to meeting the mental health and wellbeing needs of these communities. We know in Aotearoa, that mental health services meet the needs of the dominant population well but are less able to meet the needs of marginalised communities.
Current project
- Recent Migrant and Former Refugee Wellbeing in Aotearoa – what helps and what is needed?
Recent publication
- Refugees and Mental Wellbeing. A Call for Community Approaches in Aotearoa New Zealand. Tuwhera link
Nutrition, Migrants and Well-being (NuMiWell) is a research cluster within the Migrant and Refugee Health Research Centre. This cluster brings together academics, students, practitioners and community members who are interested in food and dietary behaviours among migrant and former refugee communities in Aotearoa New Zealand. The cluster is committed to how research is co-created with communities, whose voices shape the work, and how knowledge is shared in ways that support cultural values and lived experience.
Insightful understanding of nutrition, food practices and dietary experiences among migrant and former refugee communities is essential for promoting culturally responsive health and wellbeing. Through collaborative, Tiriti-informed research, the cluster aims to illuminate how food policy and practices shape identity, belonging and access to equitable nutrition across generations and settlement journeys.
NuMiWell facilitates opportunities for sharing knowledge, and codesigning research around culturally informed food-related topics. This includes exploring changes in food habits following migration, food traditions, access to familiar foods, nutrition, intergenerational perspectives on diet, and how food contributes to identity, belonging and wellbeing.
Current projects
- Exploring Dietary practices of Indian migrants in Aotearoa, New Zealand (Meenal Rai, Srishti Sharma)
- Explore Food Practices and Eating Behaviours with Middle Eastern, Latin American, and African (MELAA) Migrant Communities (Collaborative Leadership: Shabnam Jalili-Moghaddam, Meenal Rai, and Gael Mearns)
Members
- Shabnam Jalili-Moghaddam
- Meenal Rai
- Gael
- Srishti
Past projects
These scoping reviews explored rates of vaccine-preventable disease (VPD) burden and immunisations among migrant and non-migrant populations, and currently recommended interventions to reduce the VPD burden faced by migrants worldwide.
Funded by:
AUT Summer Studentship award
Researchers:
Dr Nadia Charania, Nina Gaze, Janice Kung & Stephanie Books
Utilising New Zealand’s capacity to link anonymised health and immigration data (the Integrated Data Infrastructure), the Red Knot study determined the immunisation status and vaccine-preventable disease burden among children with migration and refugee backgrounds.
Funded by:
Ministry of Innovation and Employment
Researchers:
Dr Nadia Charania, Dr Janine Paynter, Dr Arier Lee, Ms Donne Watson, and Associate Professor Nikki Turner
This integrative literature review was conducted drawing on peer-reviewed research articles on immigrant health in NZ published between 2012 and 2018. A search yielded more than 130 articles with 28 articles constituting the foundation of the review. This review is timely following the rapid increase in the scale, speed, and spread of immigration and its potential for changing NZ’s national health patterns and priorities. migration in NZ is a gendered phenomenon, as there has been more women and girls arriving as migrants in NZ and being at risk of poor health in comparison with their male counterparts. Secondly, studies on infectious diseases take precedence over other health problems. Thirdly, research methodologies used to collect data may not be relevant to the cultural and traditional customs of the migrant populations. Furthermore, a number of research findings implemented have failed to meet the needs of NZ migrants. Lastly, policy initiatives are inclined more towards supporting health practitioners and lack a migrant centred approach.
Funded by:
African refugees and asylum seekers
Researchers:
Blessing Kanengoni Nyatara, Dr Sari Andajani and Professor Eleanor Holroyd
Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ) welcomed more than 1500 Afghan nationals on emergency or temporary visas in response to the recent crisis in Afghanistan, when the Taliban took control of the country after international forces departed. New Settlers Family and Community Trust (NFACT) is a community-based organisation that provides support to resettled refugees and those from refugee-like backgrounds. NFACT received funding for 2 years to provide resettlement support and services to 1500 Afghan evacuees in Auckland. NFACT developed a community-led holistic model of refugee resettlement that featured the provision of culturally appropriate, wrap-around resettlement support. Using a mixed-methods methodology informed by a participatory evaluation framework, we collected quantitative and qualitative data from Afghan evacuees and NFACT staff about their experiences with the programme and suggestions for improvement.
Funded by:
Auckland University of Technology, Foundation North
Researchers:
Nadia Charania, Eleanor Holroyd, Irene Zeng
This study proposes to collect quantitative and qualitative data regarding factors that influence the access and uptake of immunisations and strategies that would help improve age-appropriate vaccinations among refugee children post-resettlement. The outcomes of this study will help us better understand the root causes of under-immunisation and how we can improve immunisation rates to protect vulnerable refugee children and the wider society.
Funded by:
Health Research Council of New Zealand (Emerging Researcher First Grant)
Researchers:
Dr Nadia Charania, Dr Janine Paynter, and Associate Professor Nikki Turner
This mixed-methods research aims to understand factors influencing ethnic disparities in the update of health services for children, focusing on GP visits, immunisations and dental. The aim is to understand the complex interaction of factors at play and propose recommendations for policy and practice improvement to reduce health inequities.
Funded by:
Health Research Council of New Zealand (Project Grant)
Researchers:
Professor Gail Pacheco, Dr Nadia Charania, Dr Alexander Plum, Dr Sonia Lewycka, Associate Professor El-Shadan (Dan) Tautolo, Dr Terryann Clark, Dr Mary Hedges
This qualitative descriptive study aims to understand the vulnerabilities and capacities of Indian and Chinese migrants in the face of disasters and propose strategies for migrant-inclusive disaster risk-reduction.
Funded by:
Earthquake Commission
Researchers:
Dr Nadia Charania, Dr Loic Le De, Ms Vineeta Rao
Migration to Aotearoa New Zealand is increasing, with migrants currently making up over a quarter of the total population. Migrants and refugees can experience barriers to accessing preventive health services during pregnancy, postpartum, and early childhood. Moreover, it is important that services are culturally appropriate and also incorporate how migrants’ transnational ties influence their health perceptions and behaviours. Suboptimal engagement with these services can have short- and long-term impacts on the health and wellbeing of women and children of migrant and refugee backgrounds, thereby creating inequities. We aim to establish a research network that spans across sectors, including academia and health services, and develop a prioritised research agenda. By identifying key research questions and areas for change, we will draft funding applications to undertake the research and translate evidence to drive maximal impact to improve the health and wellbeing of migrant and refugee women and children in Aotearoa.
Funded by:
The Health Research Council of New Zealand
Researchers:
Nadia Charania (PI), Gail Pacheco, Dan Tautolo, Amber Young, Nikki Turner, Janine Paynter, Samantha Marsh, Vivian Cheung, Claire MacDonald
Postgraduate students
Our postgraduate students work on projects that further advance our centre's research.