“My children will grow up more healthy than me because of the vaccinations they received”: Using the migrant health trajectory model to understand Vietnamese American parents’ attitudes towards vaccinations and the U.S. healthcare system

Previous studies have examined the rationales affluent white American parents give for distrusting vaccinations and the U.S. healthcare system; fewer studies have investigated the vaccine- and healthcare-related attitudes of foreign-born parents who have resettled in the U.S. Drawing on 40 in-depth interviews with Vietnamese American parents who emigrated from Vietnam and reside in Southern California, this study finds that these parents favor vaccinations and trust the U.S. healthcare system. However, contrary to the “good” refugee and “model” minority stereotypes, which racializes Asian Americans as blindly adhering to authority to assimilate, these Vietnamese Americans reported purposefully agreeing to vaccinations because they believe that vaccines are a privileged prevention strategy, ensured by the U.S. healthcare system to safeguard their and their children's livelihoods. Interview participants chronicled their social experiences as refugees, particularly their upbringing in Vietnam (where they witnessed vaccine and healthcare inequities) and their emigration to and resettlement in the U.S. (a social setting they believe has an abundance of advantageous health resources) as social factors influencing their vaccination and healthcare standpoints. By attending to Vietnamese American parents' unique emigration health trajectories, this study highlights how vaccination and healthcare attitudes are social acts shaped by interlinking socio-historical, -political, and -cultural contexts. •Vaccinations and US healthcare system are seen as privileged prevention strategies.•Migrant Health Trajectory underscores pre-, peri-, and post-migration experiences.•Interlinking socio-historical, -political, and -cultural contexts shape attitudes.•Findings challenge the “good” refugee and “model” minority stereotypes.