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Indian diaspora perspectives on social well-being during COVID-19 pandemic
ABSTRACT
Background:
The Indian diaspora in the United States is represented by 3 million nonresident Indians living outside their homeland. The psychological and social ramifications of lockdowns, travel restrictions, vaccinations, and social limitations are indeed profound.
Objective:
The goal of this research is to examine the social effects brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic on the Indian diaspora.
Methods:
This primary research included 218 interviews (face to face, phone, and web-based) with members of the Indian diaspora living in the US to determine the impact of COVID 19 with respect to their extended family living abroad as well as their social implications.
Results:
All participants indicated that they were fully vaccinated and self-rated highly in terms of precautions. The impact of government-imposed travel restrictions was quite thorough on diaspora psychology as all participants reported significant increases in stress, loneliness, isolation, and general anxiety. Measures of fear decreased as the pandemic progressed. Social interactions were also impacted as decisions were made to attend based on the vaccination rate or mask usage. Information sources varied slightly but relied heavily on Centers for Disease Control information.
Conclusions:
Cultural factors and location of extended family members played a role in their level of caution. This study also suggests that perceived social isolation played a significant part in general social well-being. As the perception of fear decreased over time, we anticipate that other factors that contribute to anxiety and general well-being will also improve as societies adapt to the novel virus, restrictions ease, and vaccines improve in efficacy.
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Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.