Social science & medicine
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Social science & medicine · Mar 2012
ReviewBeyond welfare reform: reframing undocumented immigrants' entitlement to health care in the United States, a critical review.
This article addresses the main scholarly frames that supported the deservingness of unauthorized immigrants to health benefits in the United States (U. S.) following the passage of the Personal Responsibility Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), known as the Welfare Reform bill, in 1996. Based on a critical literature review, conducted between January 1997 and March 2011, this article begins with an analysis of the public health rhetorics that endorsed immigrants' inclusion into the U. ⋯ First, the "chilling effect," defined as the voluntary withdrawal from health benefits, is examined in light of unauthorized immigrants' internalized feelings of undeservingness. Second, an "injustice" narrative highlights both the contributions and the limitations of a social justice paradigm, which advocated for the restoration of government benefits to elderly immigrants and refugees after the passage of PRWORA. By analyzing the contradictions among all these diverse frames, this paper finally reflects on the conceptual challenges faced by medical anthropology, and the social sciences at large, in advancing health equity and human rights paradigms.
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Social science & medicine · Mar 2012
A 'beautiful death': mortality, death, and holidays in a Mexican municipality.
Several studies have reported increased mortality during holidays. Using a cultural epidemiological, sequential mixed-methods approach, this study explored holiday-related trends using mortality data from Yautepec (Morelos, Mexico) collected between 1986 and 2008 (N=5027 deaths). This analysis found that mortality increased on Christmas Day and All Saints' Day. ⋯ Quantitative and qualitative results provided information about the important effects of holidays, culture, and religious belief on mortality patterns within a Mexican context, and contributed to a better understanding of the relationships among mortality, the nature of death, and holidays. Our results suggest that, in the studied region, death can be interpreted as a "beautiful process". More research is needed to explore this process in other similar contexts and to address topics related to the care and attention given the dying person and the expectation of a good death.
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Social science & medicine · Mar 2012
Undocumented immigrants and their use of medical services in Orange County, California.
Does an undocumented immigration status predict the use of medical services? To explore this question, this paper examines medical care utilization of undocumented Latino immigrants compared to Latino legal immigrants and citizens, and non-Latino whites in Orange County, California. Data were collected through a random sample telephone survey of 805 Latinos and 396 non-Hispanic whites between January 4 and January 30, 2006. ⋯ Predictors of use of medical services are found to include undocumented immigration status, medical insurance, education, and gender. Undocumented Latinos were found to use medical services less than legal immigrants and citizens, and to rely more on clinic-based care when they do seek medical services.