Legal Violence, Health, and Access to Care: Latina Immigrants in Rural and Urban Kansas

Abstract

Using interviews and ethnography started in 2016 in rural and urban Kansas, we examine the consequences of an amplified immigration enforcement combined with a local limited health care infrastructure that reproduce legal violence manifesting on Latina immigrants’ health, access to care, and community participation. We highlight the conditions rooted in place that generate short- and long-term negative impacts for Latina immigrants’ health. Fear and anxiety about the deportation of themselves and their family members make them ill and also generate apprehension about contacting medical institutions, driving, and spending time in public spaces. These circumstances coalesce in women’s lives to block access to medical care and undermine women’s roles in their communities. Following gendered expectations, women turn to their informal networks to seek health care for their families. In the context that the enforcement regime has created, these ties can turn exploitative.

Poverty, Material Hardship, and Telomere Length Among Latina/o Children

“…More specifically, an increased number of reported exposures to medical hardship were associated with shorter telomere length for Latina/o children with at least one foreign-born parent. These findings align with literature that shows immigrant parents often have difficulty accessing health care for their children, even if their children are US citizens [65,66]. Prior research also suggests that even if access to care is available, foreign-born parents are generally less satisfied, report lower ratings of care, and are more likely to feel discriminated in health care settings [67][68][69][70].…”

The Development and Evaluation of the Stigma of Illegality and Marginalization of Latinxs (Siml) Scale

“…The authors suggest that this was likely due to fear of interacting with government agencies after the passage of legislation targeting individuals perceived to be undocumented. Similar effects have been identified in other contexts, for instance, in rural and urban Kansas, where Andrea Gómez Cervantes and Cecilia Menjívar (2020) found that living in fear and anxiety of immigration enforcement not only had ill health consequences for Latina immigrants, but it also constrained their access to medical care to address those illnesses. In California, various scholars have shown the appearance of negative health effects after the passage of Proposition 187, a ballot initiative to establish a state-run citizenship screening system aimed at prohibiting undocumented individuals from using certain types of health, public education, and other services.…”

Restoring An Inclusionary Safety Net For Children In Immigrant Families: A Review Of Three Social Policies

“…Adverse exposures persist, albeit at lower levels, among immigrants with more secure legal status. [11][12][13][14] We suggest that restricted access to the social safety net based on legality is a form of structural discrimination that applies to immigrant families and negatively affects US citizen children in these families by reducing human capital investments and opportunities for economic mobility. Although on its face legality stratification is raceneutral, it has been justified and implemented in a racialized way 12,15 and has disparate impacts on Hispanics, who are much more likely to be lowincome immigrants than other groups.…”