Vulnerability and Resilience in the Face of a Desiccating Great Salt Lake

Our objectives for the Vulnerability and Resilience in the Face of a Desiccating Great Salt Lake: A Qualitative Study with Immigrant Populations Along the Wasatch Front and the Community Organizations that Serve Them project are two-fold: First, to understand how recently arrived international immigrants along the Wasatch Front perceive risk, vulnerability, and resilience as it relates to Great Salt Lake desiccation; and second, to understand how immigrant- and refugee-serving community organizations conceive of these same risks and work to mitigate environmental impacts upon the communities they serve. To our knowledge, no studies have examined how migrant populations learn about, perceive, experience, and plan for the environmental impacts of the Great Salt Lake’s desiccation. Similarly, no studies have examined community organizations’ knowledge and planning pertaining to the desiccating Great Salt Lake’s impacts upon immigrant communities. To understand this issue in more depth, we will conduct qualitative interviews with two populations along the Wasatch Front: 1) international immigrants that have lived in Utah 10 years or less and 2) staff members of community organizations serving immigrant and refugee populations. We hypothesize that the social, political, and economic exclusion routinely experienced by immigrant respondents may lead to reduced access to information from scientists and policymakers regarding the environmental risks of the Great Salt Lake’s desiccation, and therefore less awareness. In the event respondents have had access to this information and are aware of some of the projected risks, it will be vital to understand how respondents perceive, experience and/or plan for these risks in their everyday lives. By simultaneously interviewing organizational staff that routinely serve immigrant communities, we will also be able to gauge how immigrants’ and organizations’ perceptions align and misalign, understand the role community organizations play in building resilience among marginalized communities, and identify areas for possible improvement of services, resources, and policies.

Community Organizations Report