ICPHR members, Maria Roura, Sonia Dias, Joseph W. LeMaster, and Anne MacFarlane have published a new review article titled: Participatory health research with migrants: Opportunities, challenges, and way forwards in Health Expectations.

Abstract
Context
Migration is one of the most politically pressing issues of the 21st century but migrant health remains an under‐researched area. The International Collaboration for Participatory Health Research (ICPHR) working group on migration developed this position statement to address opportunities and challenges in relation to migrant health. It aims to contribute to a shift from a deficit model that sees migrants as passively affected by policies to their reconceptualization as citizens who are engaged in the co‐creation of solutions.

Methods
This paper examines the opportunities and challenges posed by the use of PHR with migrants. It draws on a broad literature to provide examples of successful PHR with migrants and highlights critical issues for consideration.

Findings
Successful initiatives illustrate the value of engaging migrants in the definition of the research agenda, the design and implementation of health interventions, the identification of health‐protective factors and the operationalization and validation of indicators to monitor progress. Within increasingly super diverse contexts, fragmented community landscapes that are not necessarily constructed along ethnicity traits, inadequate structures of representation, local tensions and operational barriers can hamper meaningful PHR with migrants.

Conclusion
For each research context, it is essential to gauge the ‘optimal’ level and type of participation that is more likely to leverage migrants’ empowerment. The development of Monitoring and Evaluation tools and methodological strategies to manage inter‐stakeholder discrepancies and knowledge translation gaps are steps in this direction.
Patient or public contributionThis paper draws from contributions of migrant populations and other stakeholders to policymaking.

February 2, 2021
 
Morgan State University (www.morgan.edu) announces that beginning in February 2021 it will be hosting the Central Office of the International Collaboration for Participatory Health Research.
 
Morgan State University is located in Baltimore, Maryland (USA), and was established in 1867. Morgan State is one of the United States’ Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), and is designated as Maryland’s Preeminent Public Urban Research University.
                                                                                                    
Morgan is a research institution offering more than 126 academic programs leading to degrees from the baccalaureate to the doctorate. Morgan has a strong track record of international partnerships with China, Brazil, South Africa, Ghana, Botswana, Nigeria, and beyond.
 
In June 2019, Morgan State University successfully hosted ICPHR’s 10th Annual Working Meeting, the first in the United States. The event was attended by more than 70 individuals from 12 countries around the world.
 
Morgan serves a multiethnic and multiracial community of students, faculty, and partners outside the university, seeking to ensure that the doors of higher education are opened as wide as possible to as many as possible. In addition to maintaining the integrity of ICPHR, Morgan State plans to generate resources through U.S. federal and other grant opportunities so as to increase ICPHR’s organizational capacity.
 
Prof. Payam Sheikhattari (payam.sheikhattari@morgan.edu) and Ms. Gillian Silver (gillian.silver@morgan.edu), members of ICPHR’s Executive Committee, will lead the transition of the Central Office from Berlin to Baltimore. Contact either of them for more information.

Newsletter of the International Collaboration for Participatory Health Research (ICPHR)
 
Fourth Quarter, 2020
 
Information en français: Nita Chaudhuri, chaudhuri.nita@orange.fr
Informação em Português: Irma Brito, irmabrito@esenfc.pt
Information auf Deutsch: Michael Wright, michael.wright@khsb-berlin.de
 
In this Issue:
 

1. Central Office Moves to Morgan State University
2. New Terms of Reference and a New Structure
3. New German-Language Literature Review
4. Annual Working Meetings 2020 and 2021
5. Community Based Contact Tracing for COVID-19
6. Call for Participatory Research Projects on COVID-19
7. Add us to Your Website
8. Getting Involved

A new PHR German Review has been published: 

Clar, C; Wright, MT (2020) Partizipative Forschung im deutschsprachigen Raum - eine Bestandsaufnahme. 

Thank you to the ICPHR membership who provided feedback on the draft ICPHR Terms of Reference (ToR). The new ToR are now posted on the ICPHR website under About--> Structure along with a list of current ICPHR Steering Group Members. 

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our Annual Working Meeting to be hosted by our colleague Rodolfo Levin (Director, Instituto de Higiene, Facultad de Medicina-Universidad de la República) in Montevideo, Uruguay was cancelled.

As an alternative, we issued a call to our members to conduct virtual workshops during the week of November 9th to the 13th. Please visit our virtual conference page to learn more! Each of the workshops will be hosted by the facilitators using their own video conferencing software. If you are interested in attending a workshop, please contact the hosts to receive the link.

The hosts will be asked to write short minutes that will be collated and distributed to all who attended the workshops. We look forward to seeing you next year in person in Coimbra, Portugal! Watch our site for details!

 After ten years of service, the Catholic University of Applied Sciences Berlin will be stepping down from hosting the Central Office of the ICPHR. We are searching for a new host institution beginning February 1, 2021 for a period of five years. 

Please read the "Call for Proposals" for more information on how to submit a proposal.

The COVID-19 outbreak, its differential impact on people around the world and the initial public health response raises more than ever the importance of involving those most affected in decision-making on appropriate action in differing contexts based on local knowledge.

While much research focus is on finding a vaccine, there is an urgent need to explore the pandemic’s effect on the health and livelihoods of the marginalised and the vulnerable in society in a way that does not further marginalise those very people.

Participatory Health Research offers a way forward that is consistent with the calls for social justice and community support in the aftermath. 

​We are concerned that in the rush for certainty and solution the lure of a command and control top down approach to research will prevail to the detriment of a longer term recovery that is based on rich local knowledge and consistent with cultural context.