Samuel van der Swaagh

04/10/13

Dr. Green

QR Synthesis Essay #1 (First Draft)

            Abrego (2011) states in his article “Legal Consciousness of Undocumented Latinos: Fear and Stigma as Barriers to Claims-Making for First- and 1.5-Generation Immigrants,” when one thinks about legal status “more centrally, its role in determining access to health care, housing, higher education, and employment becomes evident. In general, undocumented immigrants are more vulnerable; they earn less, work in more dangerous jobs, and have little access to financial and housing aid” (p. 340). According to this quote, citizenship almost becomes the key for an immigrant’s successful socioeconomic integration into a new country because it influences a person’s desirability in high-profile occupations (e.g. Med, professorship, government work, and managerial businesses), and eligibility for medical services. Consequently, often undocumented immigrants confront exploitation, marginalization, and reduced services (e.g. health care). Undocumented immigrants commonly struggle to obtain decent housing, good education, and substantive employment. Arguably, the negative stigma attached “illegal immigrant” leads undocumented residents down a dire trajectory of poverty, rejection, and vulnerability.

            The chart inserted below presents statistical data, displayed in relative frequency, on general medical care treatment by people with various legal statuses.

Descriptive Characteristics of Health-care Access by Nativity/Immigration Status (2007)

*Those who did not receive care in the past 12 months were excluded from this analysis                                             (Buggey, T. 2007)

The above chart was chosen because it offers detailed comparison between US citizen and immigrant health care tendencies, which allows one to examine whether or not legal status bears weight on one’s ability to have health care. This chart reflects Abrego’s statement, which affirms the central role of citizenship, because there definitely is a difference in access to health care between people who have and lack proper documentation. For example, there is a noticeable level of access for those with legal documents (i.e. US-born, and foreign-born citizens and residents) on five out of the six health care characteristics (e.g. unusual health care source, language concordance services, insurance coverage, and basic check-ups); however, there appears to be a deprivation of services for the undocumented. For example, while 77% of US-born citizens had access to insurance coverage, only 57% of permanent residents had health insurance, which was 20 percentage points greater than that of the undocumented immigrants. Statistically speaking, within the population of the survey, for every 918 US-born citizens, 587 foreign-born permanent residents and 253 undocumented immigrants receive insurance coverage. That is approximately a ratio of 3:2:1, respectfully. Similarly, there also seems to be a disparity between those who receive basic blood pressure tests. While 87% of US-born citizens regularly checked their blood pressure, only 76% of legal residents and 67% of unauthorized residents had blood tests within the past 2 years. According to the presented populations, the approximate ratio works out to be 38:29:17 respectfully. That is, US-born citizens have more than double the amount of access to blood pressures checks from their doctors compared to undocumented immigrants. Overall, medical care available to undocumented immigrants is 2 to 3 times reduced services than US-born citizens. (Note: the stated ratios and factors were obtained by multiplying the different populations by the percentages and comparing the results statistically). Consequently, the data strongly suggests that citizenship raises a person’s odds in accessing good health care, and causes an unequal distribution of sufficient health care. A surprising trend within the chart is that doctors seem to be partial toward the privacy of undocumented immigrants because as one moves from citizens to undocumented immigrants, doctors become less likely to release information about patient health/health care. An alternative explanation to this strange discrepancy could be that doctors feel uncomfortable either offering or documenting medical care to undocumented immigrants due to perhaps legal form problems. An implication of the data’s negative trends is that incoming immigrants could become discouraged from pursuing or maintaining a healthy lifestyle while in America. An increase of unhealthy undocumented immigrants could produce an undesirable rise of a foreign population marked by disease or sickness.

            After examining the data, I believe that a non-profit agency should begin an outreach program that offers training and guidance for how to safely transition from an undocumented immigrant to a permanent resident, which then leads to becoming a citizen. The reason for this is that as one moves up the legal status phases, accessing services becomes easier. In addition to mitigating the issue of insurance coverage, programs that encourage people to pursue citizenship could potentially help immigrants to gain better access to basic health care (e.g. blood and cholesterol tests). As the chart indicates, there is a 9%+ greater possibility in receiving blood, and cholesterol checkups as an immigrant becomes a permanent resident. In fact, if a permanent resident continues up the pathway to citizenship, the probability of gaining access to blood and cholesterol testing increases further by 5 and 14% respectfully. The skills that I utilized to collect and analyze the presented data were annotating my readings (although I never used any quote from the assigned readings), researching graphs or charts with credible resources with a focused lens and question in mind, and analyzing quantitative data or specific trends in a chart in relation to a quote’s qualitative data. I believe the skills that will be important to implement into my final research project are annotation, linking qualitative data with quantitative data by studying trends within graphs or charts, and discussing the implications or impacts of findings.

References:

Abrego, L. J. (2011). Legal Consciousness of Undocumented Latinos: Fear and

            Stigma as Barriers to Claims-Making for First- and 1.5-Generation

            Immigrants.  Law & Society Review, 45 (2), 337-369.

Buggey, T. (2007, Summer). Storyboard for Ivan's morning routine. Diagram. Journal

            of Positive Behavior Interventions, 9(3), 151. Retrieved December 14,

            2007, from Academic Search Premier database.

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QR-Synthesis Essay Final Draft.docx