Date of Award

Fall 2025

Document Type

Open Access Dissertation

Department

Health Promotion, Education and Behavior

First Advisor

Edward A. Frongillo Jr

Abstract

Background

Given the physical and mental health consequences of food insecurity, solutions should be evidence-based and seek to prioritize vulnerable populations. This qualitative study adds to limited literature on how refugees and asylum seekers use their social connections to mitigate food insecurity by investigating how Nicaraguan refugees and asylum seekers in Costa Rica foster social connections and use these connections to acquire and manage food.

Methods

In fall 2024, 35 in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted in San José, Costa Rica. Participants were recruited through six migrant-serving nonprofit organizations. For study inclusion, participants had to: 1) be 18 or older; 2) have refugee registration or identify as a migrant fleeing from danger; 3) have migrated from Nicaragua between January 2018 and May 2024; 4) be fluent in Spanish; and 5) report no cognitive or hearing impairment. Transcripts were analyzed in three stages of coding using NVivo-15.

Findings

Most participants had greater social-connection healthiness with other migrants than with Costa Ricans. The workplace was a main root of both migrant and Costa Rican connections. Discriminatory and exclusive places and events limited participants’ social connections. Both intrinsic (e.g., personality) and environmental factors influenced participants’ development of social connections. Nonprofit organizations played a key role as food sources throughout resettlement phases, social connections were vital to initial food access and distally influenced food access later in resettlement, and superficial migrant connections restricted exchange of helpful information.

Interpretation

Within their ongoing programming, nonprofit organizations should consider providing spaces and events (e.g., intergroup contact activities) which bolster social-connection trust between host community members and refugees and asylum seekers. Refugees and asylum seekers may also benefit from nonprofit organizations offering pairing programs that augment their social connections. Furthermore, perspective-taking strategies which boost solidarity may help change the norm of migrants hoarding helpful information that improves food access. Since improving refugee-host connections can improve access to food, food insecurity intervention designers should consider including host community members. Improvement of intergroup connections and interactions can be strengthened by governmental adoption of inclusive refugee policies.

Future research should: 1) apply the healthiness sub-construct in other contexts, 2) develop a multifactorial social connection scale, and 3) further explore and evaluate social connections programs which increase quantity of connections and intergroup trust, 4) assess in other settings how food access evolves over the course of resettlement, and 5) examine among other populations the resettlement stages in which nonprofit organizations are most helpful for food access.

The social connection and food insecurity experiences of refugees and asylum seekers who live outside of metropolitan capital areas or do not speak the same language as their host community may differ from the insights gathered in this study. Nonetheless, interviewing a diverse sample enabled acquisition of comprehensive data, enriching relevancy of findings. Study findings hold implications for future interventions and policy development for the 66% of refugees worldwide who live in protracted scenarios.

Rights

©2025, Herran

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