Race and Social Problems
Volume 10, Issue 3, 2018, Pages 174-192

“They Are Clipping Our Wings”: Health Implications of Restrictive Immigrant Policies for Mexican-Origin Women in a Northern Border Community (Article)

LeBrón A.M.W.* , Schulz A.J. , Gamboa C. , Reyes A. , Viruell-Fuentes E.A. , Israel B.A.
  • a Department of Population Health & Disease Prevention, Program in Public Health, University of California, Irvine, 653 E. Peltason Drive, Anteater Instruction and Research Building (AIRB), Room 2026, Irvine, CA 92697-3957, United States, Department of Chicano/Latino Studies, University of California, Irvine, 3151 Social Science Plaza, Irvine, CA 92697-5100, United States
  • b Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, University of Michigan School of Public Health, 1415 Washington Heights, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, United States
  • c Detroit Hispanic Development Corporation, 1211 Trumbull, Detroit, MI 48216, United States
  • d Detroit Hispanic Development Corporation, 1211 Trumbull, Detroit, MI 48216, United States
  • e Department of Latina/Latino Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1207 W. Oregon Street, M/C 136, Urbana, IL 61801, United States
  • f Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, University of Michigan School of Public Health, 1415 Washington Heights, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, United States

Abstract

We examine racialization processes experienced by women of Mexican origin in a northern border community during a protracted period of restrictive immigrant policies that have disparately affected Mexican-origin communities, and consider pathways through which these experiences may affect health. This grounded theory analysis draws on interviews conducted in 2013–2014 with 48 first, 1.5, and second generation Mexican-origin women living in Detroit, MI. Racialization processes blurred boundaries between Latinas/os, immigrants, and undocumented immigrants. Racialized policies and interactions required women to negotiate shifting and often precarious social and political terrain. We describe racializing markers used by agents of multiple institutions to assess the legal status of women and members of their social networks, shaping their access to the resources over which institutional agents held power. Specifically, we consider the dynamic mechanisms by which multiple legal, social, and employment institutions exacted immigrant policing and bureaucratic surveillance. These include: (1) interior and border immigration enforcement agents’ active surveillance of residents; (2) local law enforcement officials’ assertion of authority over driver’s licenses and contact with immigration officials, often in traffic-related encounters; (3) Secretary of State clerks’ discretion in assessing legal status and issuing driver’s licenses and state IDs; (4) social welfare agents’ scrutiny of citizenship status in determining access to nutritional, economic, and medical resources; and (5) employers’ exploitation of these structural vulnerabilities to justify unfair treatment of immigrant workers. We theorize several mechanisms, by which these processes affect health, including: stigmatization; hypervigilance; and restricted access to health-promoting resources. © 2018, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

Author Keywords

immigration policies Mexican Government-issued ID immigration enforcement Health inequities Immigrant policing Driver’s license Immigrant policies health equity

Index Keywords

[No Keywords available]
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85051293160&doi=10.1007%2fs12552-018-9238-0&partnerID=40&md5=2228b7a6ed8132ea0ef744732a0e0a2c
DOI: 10.1007/s12552-018-9238-0
ISSN: 18671748
Cited by: 3
Original Language: English