Assessing Geospatial Barriers in Refugee Resettlement Communities: A Descriptive Exploration about How to Identify the Health and Other Resource Needs of Recently Resettled Refugee Women

Abstract

Refugee women often arrive in the United States with extensive health care needs, yet 
significant barriers often prevent these women from accessing appropriate health care. Prelimi
nary data suggests that refugee women living in Salt Lake County, Utah are largely immobile 
and experience great difficulty navigating outside their immediate neighbourhood. In addi
tion, many refugee groups and individuals are resettled into communities where apartments are 
available without consideration of resource needs, i.e., access to public transportation, food and 
clothing retailers, schools, etc. This current research utilizes geographic information systems 
software to evaluate the geospatial barriers refugee women in a metropolitan areas face when 
seeking health and other resources. The analysis shows that, in addition to being spatially iso
lated from other refugees of their community of origin, these groups often reside in “resource 
deserts,” where resources are not in close proximity and significant barriers, such as multi
lane highways and reliable, timely public transportation prevent easy navigation. This study 
suggests that interventions seeking to improve refugee women’s health should evaluate the 
geographic barriers and seek to develop tools to expand the spatial mobility of these vulnerable 
populations.