View this as a webpage
October 2023

In this issue

• Greetings from the Refugee Health Team
• Data and Surveillance: Demographics of arrivals
• VaxRef
• Clinic Spotlight: Center for International Health
• International Health Update
• Announcements and upcoming events
• Contact us

Greetings from the Refugee Health Team

We are pleased to bring you an update on various exciting projects we have been working on these past few months. Let’s start with our new staff! This summer, we welcomed new members to our team.

Sarah Kuech, Refugee Health Planner, serves as the project coordinator for the Center of Excellence in Newcomer Health and consults with the program and its partners regarding refugee health matters. She previously worked as a nurse and health educator both domestically and internationally.

Jamie Thompson began a new role as a Community Coordinator working with the Welcome Corps, Uniting for Ukraine, and Center of Excellence in Newcomer Health programs. She previously worked with the Refugee Health Program as a Public Health Corps member and has experience in refugee health and community health assessment and planning.

Katherine Thao joined the team as a Public Health Corps member assisting with communications and community outreach. This past spring, she graduated from Gustavus Adolphus College with an undergraduate degree in biology and a minor in public health. This is her first time working in public health – she is very excited to learn at MDH – and we’re looking forward to supporting her through this journey.

Community partners and sponsors webpage

We are excited to announce our new webpage, Refugee Health Community Partners and Sponsors, which contains resources and information about the Refugee Health Program, the Minnesota Refugee Health Assessment, and health requirements for humanitarian parolee arrivals and privately sponsored arrivals. We are in the process of updating the page with the latest information. Please refer to and share this resource. We invite your feedback and suggestions.

Immigrant Health Matters

We also invite you to read our new installment of the Minnesota Center of Excellence in Newcomer Health’s Immigrant Health Matters, a quarterly series of brief vignettes focused on immigrant health and health equity. Each article presents a scenario, provides background on related concepts, and discusses action steps for providers and organizations caring for refugees and immigrants. This quarter features a scenario with a Ukrainian family and the physician who is preparing to see them for their first visit to a U.S. health care facility: Caring for Ukrainian newcomers: Rochester, NY.

Data and Surveillance: Demographics of arrivals

Over the past decade, the demographics of newcomer populations in Minnesota has varied. Refer to the World Region Map for Minnesota Refugee Health Program Statistics to learn how countries are grouped. From 2014 to 2021, newcomers from the regions of sub-Saharan Africa and South/Southeast Asia consistently comprised the greatest proportion of new arrivals. At the end of 2021, arrivals from South/Southeast Asia sharply increased due to the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and subsequent mobility shifts. In times like these, when human movement may seem unprecedented, it’s imperative to remember that mobility has historically been a mechanism of survival. From 2014 to 2021, arrivals from the East Asia/Pacific, Latin America/Caribbean, Eastern Europe, and North Africa/Middle East regions were a significantly smaller proportion (0-12% per year) of arrivals to Minnesota. This trend changed in 2022 with the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine; the percentage of arrivals from Eastern Europe, reaching 44%, surpassed that of any other region. Arrivals from South/Southeast Asia were the second highest percentage (35%) and arrivals from sub-Saharan Africa were the third highest percentage (17%).

Minnesota Arrivals Over Time by World Region, 2014-2023*

*Data as of June 2023

From Jan. 1, 2023, to June 30, 2023, 1,205 newcomers resettled in Minnesota. The top five countries of origin for newcomers included Ukraine (512, 42%), Somalia (140, 12%), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (100, 8%), Afghanistan (93, 8%), and Ethiopia (66, 5%). Almost two-thirds of new arrivals in Minnesota have settled in Hennepin and Ramsey counties (64%).

Demographics of Minnesota Arrivals, Jan. - June 2023

Minnesota continues to receive a small number of families through Welcome Corps, the private refugee sponsorship program launched early this year. Welcome Corps anticipates moving to the naming phase (previously referred to as Phase 2) of the program later this year, during which groups will be permitted to sponsor specific individuals, including family members. The strong resettlement partnerships across the state have been integral in supporting these new arrivals and sponsors. To read more about Welcome Corps and the naming phase, visit Can I Sponsor Someone I Know?

As part of the Uniting for Ukraine and Operation Allies Welcome programs, the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) provided refugee benefits and services to eligible Ukrainian and Afghan humanitarian parolees. Due to current federal law, Ukrainian and Afghan humanitarian parolees who are paroled into the United States on or after Oct. 1, 2023, are not eligible for federal public benefits and refugee resettlement services, including the refugee health assessment/domestic medical exam. Certain Ukrainian and Afghan humanitarian parolees arriving to join immediate family members who have been previously paroled into the United States may be able to continue to receive federal public benefits and refugee resettlement services.

Uniting for Ukraine Ukrainian humanitarian parolees

As of Sept. 30, 2023, over 1,700 Ukrainians were referred to our program for refugee health assessments (also known as the domestic medical exam), which is an ORR benefit. Effective Oct. 1, 2023, eligibility for ORR refugee benefits is limited to these Ukrainian humanitarian parolees:

• Ukrainian parolees who entered the United States with parole by Sept. 30, 2023.
  OR

• The following relatives of ORR-eligible Ukrainian parolees, even if the new arrival is paroled into the United States after Sept. 30, 2023:
  • Spouses or children of ORR-eligible Ukrainian parolees who entered the United States with parole between Feb. 24, 2022, and Sept. 30, 2023. Spouses and children are defined in section 101(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) (8 U.S.C. § 1101(b)).
    OR
  • Parent(s) or legal guardian(s) or primary caregiver(s) of an ORR-eligible unaccompanied child from Ukraine who entered the United States with parole between Feb. 24, 2022, and Sept. 30, 2023. An unaccompanied child is defined within 6 U.S.C. § 279(g)(2).

Operation Allies Welcome Afghan humanitarian parolees

Most Afghan humanitarian parolees arrived in the United States and in Minnesota between Oct. 2021 and Feb. 2022. No Afghan humanitarian parolees have entered Minnesota in 2023. Effective Oct. 1, 2023, eligibility for ORR refugee benefits is limited to these Afghan humanitarian parolees:

• Afghan parolees who entered the United States with parole by Sept. 30, 2023.
  OR

• The following relatives of ORR-eligible Afghan parolees, even if the new arrival is paroled into the United States after Sept. 30, 2023:
• Spouses or children of ORR-eligible Afghan parolees who entered the United States with parole between July 31, 2021, and Sept. 30, 2023. Spouses and children are defined in section 101(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) (8 U.S.C. § 1101(b)).
  OR

• Parent(s) or legal guardian(s) of an ORR-eligible unaccompanied child who entered the United States with parole between July 31, 2021, and Sept. 30, 2023. An unaccompanied child is defined within 6 U.S.C. § 279(g)(2).

Please advise all Ukrainian and Afghan humanitarian parolees to apply for health insurance with MNsure to determine their eligibility. Unless Ukrainian and Afghan humanitarian parolees have active medical assistance (MA) or meet the above criteria, please do not schedule the refugee health assessment/domestic medical exam. However, Ukrainian humanitarian parolees will still need to complete their required tuberculosis (TB) testing and immunizations for immigration purposes. Please refer these arrivals to TB screening locations and where to get vaccinated. Additionally, please continue to submit requests for all Ukrainian humanitarian parolees using the New Arrival Notification and Screening Referral form. MDH will continue to assist Ukrainian humanitarian parolees in accessing the required TB screening and immunizations. Similarly, we can assist with coordinating the refugee health assessment/domestic medical exam for Ukrainian and Afghan humanitarian parolees who meet the above criteria or who have health insurance.

VaxRef

The Minnesota Department of Health and Minnesota IT Services developed VaxRef, an application to translate immunization records from French, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, or Ukrainian to English.

The user first selects the language of their vaccinations, then submits the information in the original language. A translated vaccination list will be automatically generated in English and sent to the email provided.

Who can use VaxRef?
People who want to translate their immunization records, interpreters, translators, community assisters translating immunization records, or bilingual health care providers.

• Patients should always give the original immunization records with the translated materials to their doctor or other health care professionals.
• Note: The person using VaxRef must be able to read the immunization record in its original language to complete the form.

How does it work?
Select the language that the original immunization record is in at the top of the form. Fill out the form at the bottom of the page. Provide the email address to which you would like the completed list sent and enter all the information in the language of the original vaccination record:

A complete vaccination list will then be generated in English and sent to the email address provided on the form.

You can access VaxRef directly or through CareRef.

Clinic Spotlight: Center for International Health

The HealthPartners Center for International Health (CIH) clinic provides whole family care in the Hamline-Midway Neighborhood of St. Paul. CIH opened their doors in 1980 in response to many newcomers from Southeast Asia following the war in Vietnam. The clinic was one of the first of its kind in Minnesota and one of the first HealthPartners clinics in the state. Today, CIH provides an array of care that includes refugee health assessments, prenatal care, cross-cultural care consults, and immigration physicals. CIH has been considered a model clinic due to its ability as a primary care site to adapt to the fluctuating number of newcomer arrivals.

Many of the providers who work at CIH have broad ranges of experience and have traveled internationally in their medical practices. This diversity extends from the provider base to the staff. CIH is composed of a multi-disciplinary team that includes physician, pharmacy, psychiatry, psychotherapy, social work, nutrition, diabetes education, nursing, and trained interpreter staff. CIH also serves as a residency clinic, providing training for the next generation of medical providers. On any given day, an array of languages is spoken in the clinic by patients, providers, and staff. The providers and staff speak more than 10 languages and identify culturally as being from nine different countries. A distinguishing marker of the nursing and medical assistance team is that 100% of them identify as bilingual, with some who are trilingual.

In 2022, CIH served over 9,000 patients, with 78% of those patients identifying as Black, Indigenous, or People of Color (BIPOC) and 65% speaking a language other than English. CIH’s team of providers and staff strive to provide high-quality care to the communities they serve. The model of care at CIH is a key factor in their success as a clinic. CIH is in their seventh year of work with Minnesota Department of Health’s Center of Excellence in Newcomer Health. This partnership fosters the infrastructure for providers to help identify emerging health needs in newcomer populations. It also serves as a partnership that helps to improve continuity of care and health outcomes for newcomer populations.

International Health Update

Our partners in International Health have also been busy working on some projects they want to share with you all.

Protect yourself as COVID-19 cases increase

As fall and winter make their way through Minnesota, COVID-19 cases are on the rise again. Don’t forget to get vaccinated and take steps to protect yourself from COVID-19 while traveling. CDC recommends everyone six months and older get an updated COVID-19 vaccine to protect against the potentially serious outcomes of COVID-19 illness this fall and winter. Updated COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are now available. 

For organizations interested in sharing our COVID-19 and travel messaging, translated COVID-19 travel posters are now available in Amharic, Arabic, French, Hmong, Oromo, Somali, Spanish, and Swahili. Visit Materials and Resources: International Travel & Infectious Disease to access the posters. If you are interested in a printed poster, please email health.idee@state.mn.us for a copy.  

Announcements and upcoming events

Submit your organization to our Directories for Organizations Serving Diverse Communities

The Minnesota Department of Health Refugee and International Health Program and Infectious Disease Equity and Engagement Unit maintain three directories for organizations serving diverse communities:

1) Health Services Directory,

2) Diverse Media Directory, and

3) Community-Based Organizations Directory.

These directories are used by many state agencies, organizations, and community partners. We hope you consider having your organization listed in one the three directories, if applicable! 

We are beginning the process of updating all three directories and are requesting that community organizations and vendors do the following: 

• If your organization is already in the appropriate directory, please check to verify that your information is updated and correct through one of the links above. If anything needs to change, please submit your information using Update Directory Information.
• If your organization is not listed and you would like it to be, please submit your information using Update Directory Information.

MIRHN meetings

The Refugee Health Program hosts monthly Minnesota Immigrant and Refugee Health Network (MIRHN) meetings. MIRHN co-chairs plan the monthly meetings and bring in presenters, including community-based organizations, health professionals, and those who work with the immigrant and refugee communities. We meet on the second Tuesday of each month from 9:30 to 11 a.m. via Webex. Please join us for future meetings. Subscribe to Minnesota Immigrant and Refugee Health Announcements to receive meeting invites.

Center of Excellence webinars

• The Minnesota Center of Excellence in Newcomer Health (COE), in collaboration with ECHO Colorado, will be presenting a webinar on Pediatric Nutrition on Oct. 31, 2023. Register at ECHO Colorado: Newcomer Health. Recorded ECHO sessions are available on the Newcomer Health ECHO Resource Page.
• More COE webinars are available on our website, Center of Excellence in Newcomer Health. 
• Subscribe to Center of Excellence in Newcomer Health Updates to receive email updates, including COE webinar announcements, CareRef updates, screening guidance, Immigrant Health Matters quarterly articles, and other resources.

Contact us

Thank you for your partnership. We look forward to our ongoing collaboration!

For more information or questions, please contact the Minnesota Department of Health Refugee Health Program at refugeehealth@state.mn.us or 651-201-5414.

Manage Preferences  |  Unsubscribe  |  Help  |  health.state.mn.us