TY - JOUR
T1 - Life on the edge
T2 - Immigrants confront the American health system
AU - Portes, Alejandro
AU - Fernández-Kelly, Patricia
AU - Light, Donald
N1 - Funding Information:
Written with the collaboration of Lisa Konczal, Barry University; Leah Varga, University of Miami; and Margarita Cervantes and Cristina Escobar, Princeton University. The research on which this paper is based was supported by a Senior Investigator Award to the senior author from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
PY - 2012/1
Y1 - 2012/1
N2 - On the basis of a study of forty health care delivery institutions in Florida, California, and New Jersey, this paper examines the interaction between the immigration and health systems in the USA. We investigate barriers to care encountered by the foreign born, especially unauthorized immigrants, and the systemic contradictions between demand for their labour and the absence of an effective immigration policy. Lack of access and high costs have forced the uninsured poor into a series of coping strategies, which we describe in relation to commercial medicine. We highlight regional differences and the importance of local politics and history in shaping health care alternatives for the foreign born.
AB - On the basis of a study of forty health care delivery institutions in Florida, California, and New Jersey, this paper examines the interaction between the immigration and health systems in the USA. We investigate barriers to care encountered by the foreign born, especially unauthorized immigrants, and the systemic contradictions between demand for their labour and the absence of an effective immigration policy. Lack of access and high costs have forced the uninsured poor into a series of coping strategies, which we describe in relation to commercial medicine. We highlight regional differences and the importance of local politics and history in shaping health care alternatives for the foreign born.
KW - Unauthorized immigration
KW - free clinics
KW - health insurance
KW - institutionalized compassion
KW - language assimilation
KW - transnationalism
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U2 - 10.1080/01419870.2011.594173
DO - 10.1080/01419870.2011.594173
M3 - Article
C2 - 23585701
AN - SCOPUS:84857946830
VL - 35
SP - 3
EP - 22
JO - Ethnic and Racial Studies
JF - Ethnic and Racial Studies
SN - 0141-9870
IS - 1
ER -