"On Edge All the Time": Mixed-Status Households Navigating Health Care Post Arizona's Most Stringent Anti-immigrant Law
Affiliation
Univ Arizona, Dept Community Environm & Policy, Mel & Enid Zuckerman Coll Publ HlthUniv Arizona, Mexican Amer Studies, Coll Social & Behav Sci
Issue Date
2019-01-15Keywords
SB1070access to care
health promotion
immigrant health
immigration policy
mixed-status households
qualitative research
undocumented immigrants
Metadata
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FRONTIERS MEDIA SACitation
Gómez S and O'Leary AO (2019) “On Edge All the Time”: Mixed-Status Households Navigating Health Care Post Arizona's Most Stringent Anti-immigrant Law. Front. Public Health 6:383. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2018.00383Journal
FRONTIERS IN PUBLIC HEALTHRights
© 2019 Gómez and O'Leary. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY).Collection Information
This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at repository@u.library.arizona.edu.Abstract
Arizona's state-level policies restricting undocumented immigrants' access to public benefits continue to have implications on mixed-status households' accessibility to care. More notably, the effects of prolonged stress, anxiety and trauma remain unaddressed whilst mental health services continue to be absent. This article examines the healthcare experiences of mixed-status households after Arizona's SB1070 ("Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act") was passed. Arizona Senate Bill 1070 (SB1070) was state legislation empowering police to detain individuals unable to prove their citizenship upon request. Of particular interest is how households navigate accessibility to care when members have varied immigration statuses, hence, varied healthcare availability. Interviews with 43 households in Tucson, Arizona, 81% of which had at least one undocumented member, reveal barriers and promoters to care. Barriers include complexity of applications, fear and trepidation in seeking care. Promoters include discount care programs that are a vital source of care as well as discretionary practices exercised by front-line staff. Findings have implications beyond Arizona as immigrants settle in new destination states while the current Trump administration borrows from Arizona's anti-immigrant policies.Note
Open Access JournalISSN
2296-2565PubMed ID
30697536Version
Final published versionSponsors
Hispanic Women's Corporation; Zuckerman Family Foundation Public Health Student Scholarship; College of Public Health; Marshall Dissertation FellowshipAdditional Links
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2018.00383/fullScopus Count
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Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as © 2019 Gómez and O'Leary. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY).