COVID-19 vaccination at a mosque with multilingual and religious considerations for ethnic minorities: A case study in Kanagawa, Japan
This study is a measure of the utilization of resources and networks for ethnic minority groups, researchers focused on the efforts of the local government to use the Ebina Mosque, which is mainly used by foreign Muslims, as a vaccination site. The following topics were investigated: the kind of linguistic and religious considerations given at the mosque; the perception of linguistic and religious issues and considerations at the mosque by the vaccine recipients, and their motivation for getting vaccinated at the mosque; and problems arising from the use of the mosque as vaccination site. During a disaster, such as a pandemic, ethnic minorities tend to be left behind due to linguistic and religious differences.
The findings of this study reinforce the claim that mosques in Muslim-minority societies can successfully approach ethnic minority groups during disasters. In natural hazard-related disasters (e.g., earthquakes and tsunamis) as well as the COVID-19 pandemic, there are generally special needs for foreign nationals in terms of language and/or religion. The surveys in the study found various linguistic (e.g., interpretation by mosque-related volunteers) and religious (i.e., separating vaccination spaces based on gender) considerations provided at the mosque, which the vaccinees favorably accepted. The measure likely promoted vaccination by increasing the intention to vaccinate and closing the intention-behavior gap.