Shifting Priorities and Neoliberal Ideologies in Refugee Health Intervention Design in the US

ABSTRACT

We discuss the design of a technology-based vaccine education intervention for Somali refugees in the US. Originally conceived of as a culturally and linguistically appropriate project to be co-designed by refugees, funder demands for a “social enterprise” led to future iterations being developed for a “generic” audience. We explore epistemological negotiations and shifting priorities that shaped intervention design, highlighting how nonprofits engage neoliberal ideologies such as “social enterprise” and “design thinking” while attempting to meet community needs. We argue that social enterprises and design thinking can suffuse neoliberal ideologies into nonprofits to the detriment of community-engaged solutions.

KEYWORDS:

• United States
• design thinking
• neoliberalism
• non-Profits
• Somali refugees
• social enterprise

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Somali Community Group and the Somali Tallaal Project team for allowing us to be a part of this project and for their valuable insights. We would also like to extend our thanks to Amy Non, Bonnie Kaiser, Hanna Garth, Saiba Varma, and Wael Al-Delaimy for their thoughtful feedback on the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. All names of people, projects, and organizations are pseudonyms.

Additional information

Funding

This article was supported by the UC San Diego Department of Anthropology F.G. Bailey Fellowship, the Fletcher Jones Dissertation Completion Fellowship, and the Critical Refugee Studies Collective Grant in Critical Refugee Studies.

Notes on contributors

Samantha Streuli

Samantha Streuli is a medical anthropologist whose research interests include health equity, mental health, digital health, and health interventions. Samantha has engaged in applied research in both non-profit organizations and academic settings. ORCID: 0000-0003-1205-7605.

Trinity Lewis

Trinity Lewis is a graduate of the University of California, San Diego with a bachelor’s degree in Biological Anthropology. She is broadly interested in maternal and child health as well as public health interventions, especially in underserved populations. ORCID: 0000-0002-5429-6332.