Immigrants’ experiences of work-family conflict in the U.S.: a systematic review

ABSTRACT

This manuscript aims to synthesize what is known, and what is unknown, about immigrants’ experiences of work-family interaction, specifically the work-family conflict, in the U.S. A systematic review method was conducted using multiple electronic databases. After applying inclusion criteria, six studies were included. Immigrant workers across studies in this systematic review reported experiencing work-family conflict. Four categories of factors associated with immigrants’ work-family conflict were identified: (1) work-domain factors, (2) family-domain factors, (3) health outcomes, and (4) immigration, acculturation, and gender roles. In the work domain, job demands are positively associated with work-family conflict, while having job control and job support are negatively associated with work-family conflict. More domestic work demands and economic responsibilities in the family domain have contributed to work-family conflict, whereas having domestic support for childcare and housework helped mitigate work-family conflict. This review shows that work-family conflict has contributed to deteriorating physical and mental health outcomes among immigrants. Most importantly, this study reveals that immigration per se has uniquely shaped immigrants’ work-family interactions through the separation from family and community, the salience of employment, losing networks of social support, transitioning from collectivist cultures to an individualistic culture, and modified gender roles.

RESUMEN

Este manuscrito tiene como objetivo sintetizar lo que se sabe y lo que se desconoce sobre las experiencias de interacción de los trabajadores y las familias de los inmigrantes, especílos Estados Unidos.ficamente el conflicto trabajo-familia, en los EE. Se realizó un método de revisión sistemática utilizando múltiples bases de datos electrónicas. Después de aplicar los criterios de inclusión, se incluyeron seis estudios. Los trabajadores inmigrantes en los estudios de esta revisión sistemática informaron haber experimentado conflictos entre el trabajo y la familia. Se identificaron cuatro categorías de factores asociados con el conflicto trabajo-familia de los inmigrantes: (1) factores del dominio del trabajo, (2) factores del dominio de la familia, (3) resultados de salud y (4) inmigración, aculturación y roles de género. En el ámbito laboral, las demandas laborales se asocian positivamente con el conflicto trabajo-familia, mientras que el control del trabajo y el apoyo laboral se asocian negativamente con el conflicto trabajo-familia. Más demandas de trabajo doméstico y responsabilidades económicas en el ámbito familiar han contribuido al conflicto trabajo-familia, mientras que contar con apoyo doméstico para el cuidado de los niños y las tareas domésticas ayudó a mitigar el conflicto trabajo-familia. Esta revisión muestra que el conflicto trabajo-familia ha contribuido al deterioro de los resultados de salud física y mental entre los inmigrantes. Lo más importante, este estudio revela que la inmigración per se ha moldeado de manera única las interacciones trabajo-familia de los inmigrantes a través de la separación de la familia y la comunidad, la importancia del empleo, la pérdida de redes de apoyo social, la transición de las culturas colectivistas a una cultura individualista y el género modificado roles.

KEYWORDS:

• Immigrants
• work-family
• work-family conflict
• systematic review
• the U.S

PALABRAS CLAVE:

• Inmigrantes
• trabajo-familia
• conflicto trabajo-familia
• revisión sistemática
• los Estados Unidos

Disclosure statement

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

Notes on contributors

I-Hsuan Lin, Ph.D., MSW, MBA. Assistant Professor of Social Work at the College of Saint Rose. Her primary research interest centers around the gendered work-family interface, with a specific focus on caregivers’ work-family conflict (WFC) and structural solutions.

Pei-Shi Lin is a Ph.D. student of Political Science at Claremont Graduate University. He majors in Political Philosophy and American Politics, especially with a focus on modern democratic theories; he has also been trained in the systematic review method and game-theoretical modeling.

Notes

1 The value of unpaid work, including care work and housework usually conducted by women in families, is recognized and valued equally to paid work. For the sake of simplicity, however, the term ‘work’ in this article is used to refer to paid work (i.e. employment), unless specified otherwise.

2 This research uses the Census Bureau’s definition to define immigrants as anyone who is not a U.S. citizen at birth but lives in the U.S. now as naturalized citizens, lawful permanent residents, legal residents on temporary visas (i.e. international students and international/foreign workers), and unauthorized immigrants (United States Census Bureau, 2013; Zong & Batalova, 2016). Although ‘foreign born’ and ‘immigrant’ are used interchangeably to refer to persons without U.S. citizenship at birth (Zong & Batalova, 2016), this research uses the term of immigrant(s) consistently throughout the paper to refer to this population.

3 The term Limited English Proficient (LEP) refers to any person aged 5 and older who reported speaking English ‘less than very well,’ as classified by the U.S. Census Bureau (Zong & Batalova, 2016).

4 Work-family conflict is defined as objective and subjective incompatibility between work and family demands manifested especially in time and strain. Due to lack of research (Sawyer, 2012) and limited space, this article focuses on heterosexual parents’ experience which may be different from or not applicable to that of same-sex parents’.

5 The second reviewer is a Ph. D. student of Political Science, who has received training in the systematic review method.

6 In a collectivist culture, individuals live in extended networks where people share responsibility to care for one another throughout the life span. Usually, gender roles in this type of culture are more divided, aligned with the assumption of separate spheres of work and family, characterized by gendered divisions of labor (Grzywacz et al., 2007; Rudolph et al., 2014; Sallee & Hart, 2015).

7 In an individualistic culture, individuals are expected to care for themselves and their immediate families and gender roles tend to be more egalitarian (Grzywacz et al., 2007; Sallee & Hart, 2015).