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Open Access Publications from the University of California

Scholarly Works (37 results)

  • Article
Working Papers (2018)
    Cover page: An Examination of the Relationship Between Povery and State-Level Immigrant Policies
    • Book
    Bobcat Comics (2023)
      Cover page: Exclusión de los latinos durante la pandemia de COVID-19
      • Article
      • Peer Reviewed
      UCLA Previously Published Works (2017)
      In the USA, undocumented Latino immigrants may have poorer health because of barriers to health care, stressors, and detrimental effects of immigration enforcement. Previous immigrant health research, however, suggests that recently arrived Latino immigrants have better health than US-born Latinos and their health deteriorates over time. Given the current environments that undocumented immigrants face, legal status is a structural factor that likely influences the patterns of immigrant health. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the extent to which physical and mental health differed by legal status and duration in the USA for the Latino population in Los Angeles County, California. We conducted analysis of Latino respondents (n = 1396) to the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey (L.A.FANS) Wave II. We examined self-reported health, depression measured by the Composite International Diagnostic Interview-Short Form, and blood pressure collected by trained interviewers. Respondents reported their legal status, time in the USA, and other sociodemographic characteristics. Regression models were used to test associations between each outcome and 1) legal status and 2) legal status by duration (≤ 15 and > 15 years) in the USA. Without taking duration into account, we found no significant differences in outcomes between undocumented, documented, or US-born Latinos. Taking duration into account, shorter duration undocumented immigrants had worse self-reported health than the US born. Undocumented immigrants, regardless of duration, had higher blood pressure than documented immigrants who had been in the USA for less time and the same level of blood pressure as the US born. In contrast, shorter duration documented immigrants had lower blood pressure compared to longer duration documented immigrants and US-born counterparts, and marginally lower blood pressure than shorter duration undocumented immigrants. The findings suggest that the health advantage generally presumed to exist among immigrants may not affect undocumented immigrants.
        Cover page: Legal Status, Time in the USA, and the Well-Being of Latinos in Los Angeles.
        • Book
        Bobcat Comics (2023)
          Cover page: Excluded From The Safety Net
          • Thesis
          • Peer Reviewed
          UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations (2018)

          Drawing from citizenship stratification theory and Public Health Critical Race Praxis, this study examines how the intersection of immigrant policy, citizenship, and race/ethnicity shape health care access and health status. State immigrant policies influence the significance of citizenship position and intersect with racial hierarchies in each state, shaping the extent to which noncitizens are integrated into or coercively excluded from state social, economic, and other institutions. To understand how such polices policies affect the health inequalities between noncitizens and citizens, I conducted a systematic review of 15 integration and 6 criminalization policies in each US state and merged the data with health and demographic data from the 2014 and 2015 National Health Interview Survey. I assessed the variation in having a usual source of care and self-reported health between noncitizens and citizens across states with varying levels of integration or criminalization policy, net of other factors. In states with lowest levels of integration policies, noncitizens, compared to US born citizens, had a lower level of having a usual source of care; but in states with the highest level of integration, there was no difference in having a usual source of care, suggesting a reduction of health care inequities in these states. In states with lower levels of criminalization there was, similarly, no statistically significant difference in excellent health between noncitizens and US born citizens. However, in states with higher, compared to lower, levels of criminalization there was a divergent pattern in which a greater proportion of noncitizens and a lower proportion of US born citizens reported excellent health. These findings suggest that in states that are more welcoming of immigrants there are fewer inequalities in health care access and health status between citizens and noncitizens. Future research, however, is needed to understand the mechanisms by which policy shapes proximal health factors, such as immigrants’ perceptions of and exposure to discrimination and their resilience within hostile policy climates. Public health practitioners may advance immigrant health by supporting immigrant integration policies in health care, education, and workplace settings and counteracting criminalization policies that sanction the policing and apprehension of noncitizens.

            Cover page: Producing citizenship position through state immigrant policies: an examination of the relationships between health, policy, citizenship, and race in the United States
            • Article
            • Peer Reviewed
            UC San Francisco Previously Published Works (2024)
            Restrictive federal and state immigration policies create conditions of employment exclusion that may negatively influence the health of immigrants. In particular, these policy effects are reflected in labor market and workplace experiences that determine the types of work and employment opportunities that immigrants are able to access and pursue. This study examines the relationship between both cumulative and individual measures of employment exclusion and self-rated health and psychological distress among Asian and Latino immigrants in California, and whether this relationship is modified by legal status. We used data from the Research on Immigrant Health and State Policy (RIGHTS) study (n = 2010). We used both multivariable logistic regression and linear regression models for our analyses. For cumulative models, labor market exclusion was associated with poor health (OR = 1.21, 95% CI: 1.01, 1.46). Workplace exclusion was also associated with poor self-rated health (OR = 1.45, 95% CI: 1.15, 1.82) and increased psychological distress (β = 0.69, 95% CI: 0.31, 1.07). For individual measures of employment exclusion, settling for a job - a labor market exclusion - and working in a dangerous job and experiencing wage theft - workplace exclusions - were associated with poor health and increased psychological distress. There was no evidence that the association between employment exclusions and health varied by legal status. These findings demonstrate that the combined effect of employment exclusions is detrimental to immigrant health. To improve population health, public health researchers should continue to interrogate the policy conditions at the federal, state, and local level that exclude immigrants from employment opportunities and workplace protections.
              Cover page: The legacy of immigration policies and employment exclusion: Assessing the relationship between employment exclusions and immigrant health.
              • Thesis
              • Peer Reviewed
              UC Merced Electronic Theses and Dissertations (2023)

              Immigration policies and policy-related factors create distrust among Latinos and immigrants. News coverage of exclusionary immigration policies may be a policy-related factor that also shapes distrust. There is evidence news coverage of immigration policies does not always reflect the policies within a state. In this paper, we used data from a qualitative content analysis of newspapers in 15 U.S. states (2010-2013, 2017-2019) and a state policy-index of immigrant policies to assess the relationship between inclusive and exclusive news coverage of immigration policies and high distrust on health information from a multiethnic sample. We find news coverage of both inclusive and exclusive immigration policies were associated with high distrust in health information. We suggest inclusionary immigration policies are not as protective to Latino and immigrant health as perceived. Immigration as a news topic may also have a role in shaping distrust and health that is independent of immigration policy.

                Cover page: Assessing the Relationship between Immigration Policy News Coverage and Distrust in Health Information
                • Article
                • Peer Reviewed
                UC Davis Previously Published Works (2022)

                Objectives

                The USA maintains the world's largest immigration detention system. This study examines the mechanisms by which detention serves as a catalyst for worsening health.

                Methods

                Using data from detained immigrants in California (n = 493) from 2013 to 2014, we assessed the prevalence of exposure to conditions of confinement hypothesized to negatively influence health; the extent to which conditions of confinement are associated with psychological stress, diagnosed mental health conditions, and/or declines in general health; and the cumulative impact of confinement conditions on these outcomes.

                Results

                We found that each condition increased the likelihood of one or more negative health conditions, but there was also a cumulative effect: for each additional confinement condition, the odds of worsening general health rose by 39% and reporting good health decreased by 24%.

                Conclusions

                Confinement conditions are associated with poor physical and mental health outcomes among immigrants detained in immigration prisons. Policies that seek to improve specific conditions in detention centers may remove some risks of harm, but alternatives to detention are likely to be most effective.
                  Cover page: Cumulative Risk of Immigration Prison Conditions on Health Outcomes Among Detained Immigrants in California
                  • Article
                  • Peer Reviewed
                  UCLA Previously Published Works (2019)
                  There has been a burst of research on immigrant health in the United States and an increasing attention to the broad range of state and local policies that are social determinants of immigrant health. Many of these policies criminalize immigrants by regulating the "legality" of their day-to-day lives while others function to integrate immigrants through expanded rights and eligibility for health care, social services, and other resources.Research on the health impact of policies has primarily focused on the extremes of either criminalization or integration. Most immigrants in the United States, however, live in states that possess a combination of both criminalizing and integrating policies, resulting in distinct contexts that may influence their well-being.We present data describing the variations in criminalization and integration policies across states and provide a framework that identifies distinct but concurrent mechanisms of deportability and inclusion that can influence health. Future public health research and practice should address the ongoing dynamics created by both criminalization and integration policies as these likely exacerbate health inequities by citizenship status, race/ethnicity, and other social hierarchies.
                    Cover page: Included, but Deportable: A New Public Health Approach to Policies That Criminalize and Integrate Immigrants
                    • Article
                    • Peer Reviewed
                    UCLA Previously Published Works (2017)
                    In the USA, undocumented Latino immigrants may have poorer health because of barriers to health care, stressors, and detrimental effects of immigration enforcement. Previous immigrant health research, however, suggests that recently arrived Latino immigrants have better health than US-born Latinos and their health deteriorates over time. Given the current environments that undocumented immigrants face, legal status is a structural factor that likely influences the patterns of immigrant health. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the extent to which physical and mental health differed by legal status and duration in the USA for the Latino population in Los Angeles County, California. We conducted analysis of Latino respondents (n = 1396) to the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey (L.A.FANS) Wave II. We examined self-reported health, depression measured by the Composite International Diagnostic Interview-Short Form, and blood pressure collected by trained interviewers. Respondents reported their legal status, time in the USA, and other sociodemographic characteristics. Regression models were used to test associations between each outcome and 1) legal status and 2) legal status by duration (≤ 15 and > 15 years) in the USA. Without taking duration into account, we found no significant differences in outcomes between undocumented, documented, or US-born Latinos. Taking duration into account, shorter duration undocumented immigrants had worse self-reported health than the US born. Undocumented immigrants, regardless of duration, had higher blood pressure than documented immigrants who had been in the USA for less time and the same level of blood pressure as the US born. In contrast, shorter duration documented immigrants had lower blood pressure compared to longer duration documented immigrants and US-born counterparts, and marginally lower blood pressure than shorter duration undocumented immigrants. The findings suggest that the "health advantage" generally presumed to exist among immigrants may not affect undocumented immigrants.
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