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Contemporary migration studies in cultural geography emphasize place-based approaches, recognizing the relational and contextual nature of belonging, especially as these are nested within material and symbolic structures of racial inequality. This article highlights the role of precarious legal status, focusing on undocumented immigrant young adults who grew up in the United States, to examine subjective experiences of place-making and belonging in situations of heightened visibility, deportability and vulnerability. We analyze 56 interviews with undocumented immigrant young adults, predominantly from Latin America, collected in Central Florida. Findings focus on themes linked to shared experiences of vulnerability due to illegality and visibility: (1) belonging in co-ethnic/co-legal neighborhoods, (2) ethnic and racial tensions, (3) neighborhood (in)security and safety, and (4) mutual assistantance and support among neighbors. In addition to poverty, poor infrastructure, and lack of safety, many neighborhoods in which undocumented youth grow up are characterized by racial and ethnic divisions. Our findings contribute an analysis of how undocumented migrants experience place as intersecting with broader patterns of race and ethnicity, and point to the importance of "co-legal status". This extension of the concept of co-ethnicity references shared experience of illegality as it relates to place-making for legally precarious individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior work has focused on the role of media in shaping public perceptions of immigrants and in the construction of social illegality. In this article, we examine how the undocumented 1.5 immigrant generation perceive, consume, and navigate media messaging about immigration—and particularly Latino immigrants—to understand the role of media in shaping their lived experiences. We analyze 50 in-depth and nine follow-up interviews with undocumented young adults in Florida collected between 2017 and 2021. Two major themes emerged: (1) how media information and misinformation invoke both legal and ethnoracial consciousness; and (2) how undocumented young immigrants deploy agentic strategies to resist negative and dehumanizing portrayals by rejecting media altogether, leveraging media to resist abuses, and embracing counter-narratives. Based on these findings, we discuss the usefulness of a double consciousness framework and argue for the use of "ethnoracial consciousness" in synergy with legal consciousness to more accurately describe experiences for this population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Micronesians from nations in the Compacts of Free Association (COFA) with the United States can enter the country visa‐free as "nonimmigrants." This status creates a perpetual state of precarity; they are never considered legal "immigrants" nor are they on any path to permanent US resident status. Rather than illegalization and bordering practices, precarious status is the result of territorial arrangements, ongoing imperial interactions, and securitization efforts. The case of Chuukese migrants in the US territory of Guam demonstrates how graduated forms of citizenship manifest within liminal zones of empire. The result is accompanying political and social exclusions for both migrants and residents of exterior territorial‐holding sites. The experiences of the people bound by these exclusions elucidate connections between human mobility, imperial citizenship, militarization, and empire maintenance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Structural vulnerability illuminates how social positionings shape outcomes for marginalized individuals, like migrant farmworkers, who are often Latino, indigenous, and/or undocumented. Furthering scholarship on negotiating constraints, we explore how school employees (here, Migrant Advocates) broker health care access for migrant farmworker families. Ethnographic research in central Florida showed that Advocates perform similar functions as community health workers while experiencing similar dilemmas. We propose combining medical anthropological insights with the CDC's Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child model, conceptualizing schools as an important site for families' wellbeing, recognizing brokerage roles of staff, and offering new directions for migrant health scholars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The "DACAmented Voices in Healthcare" project examined the intersection of restrictive immigration policies and health care via photovoice, a participatory action research approach, with immigrant youth living in Arizona, who were recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. These "DACAmented" youth took part in nine photovoice sessions exploring their health care experiences and accessibility to care using documentary photography and narratives. They poignantly illustrated their experiences through images identifying their main health concerns and strengths, facilitating the development of health policy recommendations. This article illustrates the thematic findings and discusses policy recommendations and lessons learned from presentations to policy makers and health care providers. Findings suggest that immigrant youth are knowledgeable of their family's health care needs and hold a unique and important position within mixed-status households. Health care providers can benefit from the proposed recommendations by building bridges to care to address health equity in immigrant communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The containment of immigrants along the US/Mexico border illuminates the complex spatial implications associated with the securitization of migration enforcement. The production of marginalized, carceral national spaces has particular consequences for the people who inhabit them, as processes of spatial illegality shape their daily lives. Our analyses draw on five years of ethnographic study in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. Here, we focus on the experiences of sixty‐one undocumented youth, including recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, to explore how the spatial violence created by checkpoints and everyday policing practices lead to experiences of confinement and accelerate processes of social exclusion. Spillover effects occur as all inhabitants must pass through inspection points and demonstrate proof of identity and legal residency; this contributes to the reformulation of citizenship. To this, our article adds insight into how social membership is experienced at the checkpoints so that "citizenship" and "authorization" become conflated. Early childhood and youth experiences of freely crossing spaces with school programs yet living with uncertain and precarious status contribute to persistent fear, instability, and confusion under a multilayered immigration policy regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this paper, we consider how news stories about one area of the U.S.‐Mexico borderlands, the Rio Grande Valley of south Texas, further propagate notions of a region filled with people characterized as dangerously noncompliant with American ideals of citizenship, prosperity, and security. Using Ethnographic Content Analysis, we conducted a systematic analysis of Valley, state and national mainstream news media stories from 2010–2016 about health or health care in the Rio Grande Valley. Ethnographic research with Valley leaders, residents, and journalists completed the media analysis. We argue that the Rio Grande Valley is framed as both an unruly internal colony as well as a racialized periphery, due to its proximity to Mexico. We detail how these news stories are received and acted upon by seasoned local journalists who use their trade to offer different scripts, rooted in actual lives and experiences of residents. We conclude with alternative versions of the U.S.‐Mexico border region from borderlands scholars to reflect on how dominant media representations of places and people can be weathervanes for political discourse that shape state and national action about “the border.” [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What has been the fate of those living in the place once dubbed the ‘county that needs the Affordable Care Act the most’? This article presents results from a longitudinal, five-year ethnographic study of healthcare access in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. It explores reasons why this region along the U.S./Mexico border has the highest rate of uninsured persons in the country and remains among the most medically underserved, despite some increases in coverage accompanying the Affordable Care Act (ACA). It argues that the convergence of healthcare and immigration policy, framed by a unique regional history and social environment, has had multiple direct and indirect impacts on health and healthcare access. It examines the impact of the ACA on access for Latino immigrants and mixed-status households, which contain a mix of citizens, legal residents, and undocumented persons. It argues that the ACA aided in shifting the conversation to promoting private insurance coverage and away from more fundamental access barriers for low-income working populations ineligible for its benefits. This has eclipsed discussions about fundamental causes of persistent and highly racialised health disparities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social scientists are increasingly interested in the detrimental health impacts of immigration enforcement, including surveillance, arrest, detention, and deportation. In most empirical research—as well as the legal process itself—the family or household serves as the social unit for understanding ripple effects of immigration enforcement beyond the individual. While the mixed-status family analytic framework foregrounds the experiences of millions of individuals and valuably extended immigration scholarship to move beyond its heavy focus on individual behavioral choices, we argue that a continued reliance on the family as an analytic framework reproduces normative conceptualizations of kinship and care, obscures how the process of illegality is mediated by empire, racism, and (hetero)sexism, and risks reproducing narratives about the "deserving" immigrant. We propose the mixed-status community as an analytic framework to better understand the detrimental health impacts of immigration enforcement by accounting for the synergistic influence of 1) a fuller range of social and intimate relationships; 2) spatial arrangements of risk; 3) presumptions of immigration status; and 4) racialization of immigration law and enforcement practices. We draw on a case study of an immigration raid as well as contemporary examples to illustrate the added value of this analytic framework. • The frame of "mixed-status community" may better explain how deportation harms health. • Immigration enforcement harms health across a range of relationships. • Community members avoid public spaces and places when they fear arrest. • Immigration enforcement is rooted in racial profiling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT The European refugee crisis has gained worldwide attention with daily media coverage both in and outside Germany. Representations of refugees in media and political discourse in relation to Germany participate in a Gramscian 'war of position' over symbols, policies, and, ultimately, social and material resources, with potentially fatal consequences. These representations shift blame from historical, political-economic structures to the displaced people themselves. They demarcate the 'deserving' refugee from the 'undeserving' migrant and play into fear of cultural, religious, and ethnic difference in the midst of increasing anxiety and precarity for many in Europe. Comparative perspectives suggest that anthropology can play an important role in analyzing these phenomena, highlighting sites of contestation, imagining alternatives, and working toward them. [ refugee, media, immigration, crisis, Germany, Europe] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction to the journal is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including the impact of discourses of migration and deservingness on the experiences of displaced people, the debate on unauthorized migration in Israel, and the conditions of the Roma in Germany.

This article discusses the discursive framing of displacement and legitimacy for Roma migrants living in Germany to explore distinctions between 'economic' and 'forced' migration. Despite efforts towards their inclusion at the EU level, there has been an escalation in anti-Roma sentiment across Europe simultaneous with increased transnational mobility. Based on media analysis and ethnographic research spanning 2011 to 2013, the inconsistencies and ironies associated with distinctions between voluntary and forced migration - and the consequences of this distinction for experiences in a host country - are illustrated using three cases. These highlight the range of reactions to Roma as 'poverty migrants' (with its a priori assumption about welfare needs) to 'bogus' or illegitimate refugees, even when fleeing desperate circumstances. These framings, and the inconsistencies they inherently entail, highlight investment in European identity and citizenship as migrants are defined, categorized, and managed by states seeking to curtail population movements deemed problematic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although immigration and immigrant populations have become increasingly important foci in public health research and practice, a social determinants of health approach has seldom been applied in this area. Global patterns of morbidity and mortality follow inequities rooted in societal, political, and economic conditions produced and reproduced by social structures, policies, and institutions. The lack of dialogue between these two profoundly related phenomena-social determinants of health and immigration-has resulted in missed opportunities for public health research, practice, and policy work. In this article, we discuss primary frameworks used in recent public health literature on the health of immigrant populations, note gaps in this literature, and argue for a broader examination of immigration as both socially determined and a social determinant of health. We discuss priorities for future research and policy to understand more fully and respond appropriately to the health of the populations affected by this global phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are approximately 2.3 million mixed-status families in the United States, containing varied combinations of citizens, permanent legal residents, undocumented immigrants, and individuals in legal limbo. These families offer an opportunity to examine the functioning of the contemporary state and its penetration at the household level. For many Latino youth, experiences are framed not only by their own but other family members’ legal status. This article reports on health care seeking experiences of mixed-status families in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of South Texas and the impact of the recent health care reform (Affordable Care Act). We utilized qualitative ethnographic methods including 55 semistructured interviews with mixed-status families and 43 interviews with health care providers, caseworkers, and public health officials. Results indicate that changes accompanying the reform directly and indirectly affect mixed-status households’ ability to access care. We describe strategies in times of illness, including those unique to border communities. We conclude that, for successful implementation of policies associated with health care reform, broader issues related to immigration status must be addressed, especially anxieties regarding future chances of regularization. These uniquely affect mixed-status families, create a ripple effect on all household members, and result in unintended consequences for U.S. citizen children. Implications point to the need for a pathway to citizenship for parents as a basic step in improving well-being of children. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study examined disaster preparedness and decision-making by caregivers of community-dwelling persons diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or a related dementia (ADRD). Interviews were conducted with 20 caregivers in South Florida. Twelve of these interviews include caregiving experiences during the highly active 2004–2005 hurricane seasons. Results indicate that persons in earlier stages of ADRD can, and often do, remain engaged in the disaster preparation and planning process. However, during the early stages, persons may also resist evacuation, even if the caregiver felt it was necessary. During later stages of the disease, caregivers reported less resistance to disaster-related decisions, however, with the tradeoff of less ability to assist with preparation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Former President Trump's election and subsequent anti-immigrant policy initiatives brought an unprecedented sense of uncertainty for undocumented immigrants. This is particularly true for those who had experienced expanding opportunities through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) executive action signed by former President Obama in 2012. We use in-depth interviews with undocumented young adults to explore how the 2016 presidential election and 2017 executive action that rescinded DACA evoked emotions of anticipatory loss—including sadness and grief—and ontological insecurity—including anxiety and uncertainty. We adopt an interpretive and social constructionist approach to explore these emotions and their implications, demonstrating how even the threat of policy change impacts immigrant young adults' societal incorporation. We illustrate how DACA recipients conceptualized loss and how these experiences manifested in educational attainment, labor market incorporation, feelings of belonging, and civic participation. Our study provides an innovative contribution to interpret in real-time the incorporation trajectories through the emotions of living with precarious legal status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This article discusses health concerns of migrant street-based male sex workers (SMSW) in Germany, a population that remains underexplored by health and social scientists. It is based on five months of ethnographic research in 2011/2012, including 46 semi-structured interviews with physicians, social workers, health department staff, and SMSW from Romania and Bulgaria. This is supplemented with annual reports by organizations providing assistance to this population in eight cities. The article contributes, first, an analysis of the increase in migrant SMSW as a response to economic opportunities (freedom of movement across European Union borders) and constraints (transitional measures restricting access to the labor market). It seeks to move beyond the myopic association between sex work and HIV to contextualize health risks as resultant of macro-level processes associated with migration. Second, the article contributes a summary of primary health concerns for this population. Especially troubling is their lack of access to regular medical services, reflecting a socio-legal position that often resembles that of unauthorized migrants rather than European Union citizens. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This article examines organized efforts by citizens to provide medical aid to unauthorized migrants in Germany. A case study of an activist organization in Berlin highlights how prevailing forms of governance through citizenship are disrupted. Three major themes are explored. First, historical contingencies and policy realities explain why, given examples of grassroots protest by migrants in other settings, efforts in Germany have been driven primarily by citizens. Second, migrants' biolegitimacy shapes specific ideas of relative deservingness. As a result, advocacy for some groups, such as survivors of torture or refugees from specific geopolitical settings, is more highly valued than that which addresses needs of unauthorized labor migrants. Finally, although their sustained efforts have resulted in challenges to policy and called into question prevailing notions of citizenship, medical activist organizations have become increasingly institutionalized, which may jeopardize their goals. As this case illustrates, the distinctive ethics associated with providing medical care has the ability to disrupt the scaling of citizenship by the state by treating noncitizens – especially ‘illegal’ noncitizens – ostensibly as citizens, thus protesting citizenship as the exclusive organizing principle of German society. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Farmworkers in the US are a medically underserved group, who are largely uninsured, foreign-born, and working in a hazardous industry. This review addresses the challenges of providing health services for this priority population to study the numerous health access barriers that face migrant and seasonal farmworkers (MSFW), evaluates the services provided at mobile clinics, summarizes practice models for community-academic partnerships, and synthesizes the literature on effective partnership approaches to deliver these services. Because MSFW are a difficult group to reach and access, mobile farmworker clinics provide an opportunity for unique student training experiences, in addition to small survey and feasibility studies. A literature search was conducted to identify articles for the review. Out of 196 articles identified by the article databases and manual search techniques, 18 articles were finally selected for the review based on predetermined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Half of the articles were classified as case studies or descriptive studies with lessons learned. Only three articles were classified as research studies, and six articles were not classified as research studies, but rather descriptions of the clinics only. Many of the partnership models were structured with the lead agency as either the academic partner or an Area Health Education Center. The academic partner was usually a nursing school, and less frequently a medical school. Other service partners frequently mentioned were federally-qualified Community Health Centers, Migrant Health Centers, and health departments. The review found that service partnerships were characterized by collaboration between academic institutions and community organizations, with a lead agency driving sustainability efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined disaster preparedness and decision-making by caregivers of community-dwelling persons diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or a related dementia (ADRD). Interviews were conducted with 20 caregivers in South Florida. Twelve of these interviews include caregiving experiences during the highly active 2004–2005 hurricane seasons. Results indicate that persons in earlier stages of ADRD can, and often do, remain engaged in the disaster preparation and planning process. However, during the early stages, persons may also resist evacuation, even if the caregiver felt it was necessary. During later stages of the disease, caregivers reported less resistance to disaster-related decisions, however, with the tradeoff of less ability to assist with preparation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to identify the barriers and benefits to human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination in a low-income, Latina farmworker population in central Florida. This study reports on formative qualitative research conducted on perceptions of benefits, barriers, costs, place, and promotion related to the HPV vaccine from surveys and interviews with a sample of 46 low-income, Latina farm workers and 19 health care workers serving this population. It was found that Latina farmworkers hold many misperceptions about the HPV vaccine and the potential links between HPV infection and cervical cancer. In addition, it was observed that HPV vaccination intention was inversely related to concerns about adolescent sexual behavior and low perceived risk of infection but might be positively influenced by belief in illness prevention and physician recommendation. These findings add to the growing research on HPV vaccine acceptability among Latina subgroups to inform intervention development, marketing materials, education, and policy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: Persons of migrant background, a highly heterogeneous group, now comprise one-fifth of the total population in Germany. However, delayed and conflicted responses to social inclusion have resulted in clear deficits in the health care system, with few serious attempts to assess migrants’ profiles and needs. This article provides a critical review based on meta-analysis of literature indexed in MEDLINE, a qualitative review of German medical and nursing curricula, and original ethnographic data. It examines discourses and practices embedded within larger national debates on migrant integration and their specific manifestations in the health sector in order to explain the current situation of unauthorized migrants. The historical arc of the last fifty years can be viewed as a progression of key themes based on interrelated concepts of deservingness and selective investment. Relative deservingness is evident in differential social positioning and access to resources, resulting in selective investment and decades of continued social inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Persons of migrant background, a highly heterogeneous group, now comprise one-fifth of the total population in Germany. However, delayed and conflicted responses to social inclusion have resulted in clear deficits in the health care system, with few serious attempts to assess migrants’ profiles and needs. This article provides a critical review based on meta-analysis of literature indexed in MEDLINE, a qualitative review of German medical and nursing curricula, and original ethnographic data. It examines discourses and practices embedded within larger national debates on migrant integration and their specific manifestations in the health sector in order to explain the current situation of unauthorized migrants. The historical arc of the last fifty years can be viewed as a progression of key themes based on interrelated concepts of deservingness and selective investment. Relative deservingness is evident in differential social positioning and access to resources, resulting in selective investment and decades of continued social inequality. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Oral health care is critical for farmworkers' families in Central Florida. There is little research regarding the access to primary oral health care, barriers, and behaviors of Mexican migrant families. Forty semi-structured interviews were conducted with parents who are farmworkers in order to understand the factors that impact dental service utilization. Other factors that were also examined related to parental decisions regarding visits to the dentist with their children. This study highlights the inconsistent and inadequate patterns of dental health care services available for women, men, and children of farmworkers in Central Florida. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Surgeon General's report, "Culture, Race, and Ethnicity: A Supplement to Mental Health," points to the need for subgroup specific mental health research that explores the cultural variation and heterogeneity of the Latino population. Guided by cognitive anthropological theories of culture, we utilized ethnographic interviewing techniques to explore cultural models of depression among foreign-born Mexican (n = 30), Cuban (n = 30), Columbian (n = 30), and island-born Puerto Ricans (n = 30), who represent the largest Latino groups in Florida. Results indicate that Colombian, Cuban, Mexican, and Puerto Rican immigrants showed strong intragroup consensus in their models of depression causality, symptoms, and treatment. We found more agreement than disagreement among all four groups regarding core descriptions of depression, which was largely unexpected but can potentially be explained by their common immigrant experiences. Findings expand our understanding about Latino subgroup similarities and differences in their conceptualization of depression and can be used to inform the adaptation of culturally relevant interventions in order to better serve Latino immigrant communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Few studies have engaged issues of social class and access related to dental health care policy from an ethnographic perspective. The state of Florida in the US has one of the poorest records in the nation for providing dental care for low-income children, falling especially short for Medicaid-enrolled children. In this paper, we discuss unmet dental health needs of children in migrant farmworker families. Although one of the most marginalized populations, most are eligible for Medicaid and are thus covered for dental services. However, serious disparities have been linked to the lack of access through the public insurance system. This study was informed by participant observation at dental clinics and a Migrant Head Start Center and interviews with dental health providers (n = 19) and migrant farmworker parents (n = 48) during 2009. Our results indicate that some typical factors associated with poor oral health outcomes, such as low dental health literacy, may not apply disproportionately to this population. Instead, we argue that structural features and ineffective policies contribute to oral health care disparities. Dental Medicaid programs are chronically underfunded, resulting in low reimbursement rates, low provider participation, and a severe distribution shortage of dentists within poor communities. We characterize the situation for families in Florida as one of “false hope” because of the promise of services with neither adequate resources nor the urgency to provide them. The resulting system of charity care, which leads dentists to provide pro bono care instead of accepting Medicaid, serves to only further persistent inequalities. We provide several recommendations, including migrant-specific efforts such as programs for sealants and new mothers; improvements to the current system by removing obstacles for dentists to treat low-income children; and innovative models to provide comprehensive care and increase the number of providers. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This article provides an overview of some of the major topical areas in the study of im/migrant health relevant for applied and practicing anthropologists. It illustrates the conceptual, methodological, and theoretical insights they have contributed to the discipline as a whole. Topics include the intersection of health care and immigration policy; access to services; charity care and free clinics; cultural competency; medical pluralism; reproductive health and citizenship; communicable disease; the acculturation concept; and 'illegal' status as a form of health disparity. These issues are highlighted using both U.S. and comparative international research literature, with a special focus on unauthorized im/migrants. Finally, this article suggests an agenda for future work in the field of im/migrant health for applied and practicing anthropologists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Latinas have higher cervical cancer age-adjusted incidence and mortality rates, and present with more advanced disease compared to non-Latino whites. This study used a cross-sectional mixed methods survey design, exploring knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs regarding the human papillomavirus (HPV), the HPV vaccine, and cervical cancer screening with four groups of women (Mexican, Honduran, Puerto Rican, Anglo-American; n= 80) attending low-income health clinics along with one group of Latina health care workers (n= 17). Data analyses included univariate frequency distributions and one-way ANOVA tests for quantitative data, thematic and content analysis for qualitative data, and cultural consensus analysis using the covariance method to compare groups. Results indicate overall cultural consensus for the five subgroups for both the agree/disagree questions and rankings on cervical cancer risk factors. However, differences were found between Latina women compared to Anglo-American patients and health care clinic workers around birth control practices as possible causal factors for cervical cancer. Other findings suggested greater awareness of HPV and the HPV vaccine among Anglo-American and Puerto Rican women compared to Mexican and Honduran women. Mexican and Honduran women were less likely to be aware of HPV and the HPV vaccine, and more likely to be uninsured and without a regular health care provider. Results point to the need to assess knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs in specific subgroups experiencing cervical cancer disparities to identify target areas for health education. Study findings will be used to inform the development and pilot testing of health education curriculum modules for cervical cancer prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the findings from a community-based tobacco cessation project that trained lay health influencers to conduct brief interventions. A discussion of the four major lessons about sustainability that were found as a result of the project is presented. The implications that the project has for health promotion in areas beyond tobacco cessation are examined.

Abstract: Unauthorized migrants face health disadvantages in many receiving nations. However, few studies have explored precisely how the condition of “illegality” influences illness experiences, medical treatment, and convalescence. This article presents a case study from Germany (2004–2006 and 2008), where unauthorized migrants face limited access to health care and the threat of deportation results in avoidance of services and treatment delays. This is confounded by unique laws which essentially criminalize health care workers for aiding migrants. This article provides a snapshot of 183 patients who attended a Berlin clinic that functions as the single largest source of medical assistance for unauthorized persons in Germany. The demographic information sketches a picture of labor migrants with a mean age of approximately 29 years. More women than men presented at this clinic, a result of its ability to successfully arrange prenatal care and delivery as well as a reflection of local labor markets. The diversity of countries of origin (n =55) is surprising, underscoring the utility of using illegal status as a unifying variable to highlight migrants'' shared position in the global economy and the resulting barriers to basic medical services. Patients presented with a range of illnesses typical for their age group. However, the effects of illegal status resulted in four areas of disparities: 1) limits to the overall quality and quantity of care for mothers and infants; 2) delayed presentation and difficulties accessing a regular supply of medication for patients with chronic illnesses; 3) difficulties in accessing immediate medical attention for unpredictable injuries and other acute health concerns; and 4) a lack of mental health care options for generalized stress and anxiety affecting health. In Germany, an incoherent policy environment contributes to inadequate services and treatment delays. Solutions must address these legal ambiguities, which represent a primary barrier to equity in a nation with otherwise universal health coverage. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Risk modeling is an increasingly important part of clinical medicine; however, “risk status” is a complex notion, understood differently by patients and clinicians. Patients' ability to make informed choices about clinical procedures often requires that they interpret risk statistics, which may be difficult to understand and apply. In this article, which is based on a study of prenatal care in South Texas, we consider how notions of risk affect patient decisions about prenatal genetic testing. The term “risk” carries multiple meanings for clinicians and patients. These meanings may conflate concepts of danger and probability as well as muddle population risk and individual risk. We propose that failure to articulate the varied and contrasting meanings of risk held by clinicians and patients can undermine clinical communication and, thereby, hamper patients' ability to make autonomous, informed choices. Attending to these differences may prove useful in empowering patients to make truly informed decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives. To identify appropriate interventions to prevent injury, we conducted a qualitative study among commercial shrimp fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico. Methods. Using qualitative and participatory research methods, including interviews, photovoice, and workplace observations in southeast Texas and the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, we examined the social‒structural dimensions that contribute to physical and psychological injury. Results. We found that multiple layers of vulnerability and danger exist among shrimpers with interacting themes: (1) recognizing risk, (2) precarious employment, and (3) psychological distress. Conclusions. Our results add to the growing body of knowledge that emphasizes the negative health impacts of underregulated, high-risk, and physically demanding work performed primarily by im/migrants. Public Health Implications. Our findings highlight the larger social‒structural conditions and context of hardships endemic to migrant labor and suggest implications for practice and policy interventions. (Am J Public Health. 2024;114(8):824–832. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2024.307696) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mental and emotional well-being are intimately entangled with immigration status, personal relationships, and the broader political environment. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in South Texas including interviews with mixed-status families, this article illustrates the spillover impacts affecting mental and emotional health of family members with different legal statuses. Building on the notion of "structural vulnerability,„ we propose the concept of familial vulnerability, a lens which highlights how racialization, legal status, and discrimination affect the family unit. Our analysis of the mental health impacts on family members within mixed-status families may inform necessary changes to programs and policies to improve the needs of this population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program enabled undocumented immigrant young adults to more freely participate in U.S. society. Guided by family systems theory, which emphasizes that individual actors are interdependent with others within family units, we analyze the experiences of young adult DACA recipients while members of their families remain deportable. We draw from 44 in-depth interviews with DACA recipients who are part of mixed-status families to answer three questions: How were the benefits of DACA distributed within mixed-status family units and discrepancies interpreted by recipients? How did obtaining DACA change recipients' roles and responsibilities within their families? And to what extent did obtaining DACA shape young adults' envisioned futures? We discuss potential results of the program, including changes in familial relationships, conflicting roles, and challenges in recipients' efforts at individuation from their families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increasing technical sophistication of medicine, clinicians’ task of assuring patient informed consent is increasingly elusive. Taking the example of prenatal genetic testing, we examine efforts to communicate the complexities of genetic knowledge and risk calculation to patients. In this qualitative, descriptive study, we interviewed 50 clinicians and 40 patients, and observed 101 genetic counseling sessions. We found the clinicians and patients have different goals, purposes, and values regarding testing, which affect their clinical interactions. The information the clinicians provide patients reflects their clinical interest in identifying and controlling pathophysiology, while patients, in contrast, are most concerned with protecting and nurturing their pregnancy. We argue informed patient decision-making about prenatal testing options requires information that is responsive to patient interests. We recommend developing a shared decision-making approach, to facilitate the full participation of both clinicians and patients in the decision-making process. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Culture of Health Action Framework aims to "make health a shared value" and improve population health equity through widespread culture change. The authors draw upon their expertise as anthropologists to identify 3 challenges that they believe must be addressed in order to effectively achieve the health equity and population health improvement goals of the Culture of Health initiative: clarifying and demystifying the concept of "culture," contextualizing "community" within networks of power and inequality, and confronting the crises of trust and solidarity in the contemporary United States. The authors suggest that those who seek to build a "Culture of Health" refine their understanding of how "culture" is experienced, advocate for policies and practices that break down unhealthy consolidations of power, and innovate solutions to building consensus in a divided nation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the highlights of a panel titled "Beyond Statistics: Exploring the Challenges Facing Black Anthropology Students in the Pursuit of Graduate Degrees" at the Society for Applied Anthropology (SfAA) meetings in Albuquerque, New Mexico in March 2014. The panelists include Lauren C. Johnson, Alisha R. Winn and Emelda Curry from the University of South Florida (USF). Topics discussed include African American students taking anthropology, feelings of isolation and mentorship.

In this paper we report on findings from the first known study using qualitative methods to explore factors influencing physicians' participation in an ongoing federally-funded prostate cancer chemoprevention clinical trial. We sought to identify ways to improve collaboration between researchers and physicians and enhance the success of future projects and employed purposive sampling to recruit physician/investigators who were involved or invited to participate in the trial. Using the data from open-ended semi-structured interviews, we examined patterns in their languaging and created themes. We found that individual and structural factors served as barriers and facilitators to participation. Willingness and desire to participate in the trial (individual factors) were not always enough to result in actual participation due to practice environment (structural) constraints. Our research provides a better understanding of the complex intersection of factors in this setting and through our findings we extend the theory of competing demands into the arena of prostate cancer prevention clinical trials, moving the science towards solutions to current challenges in recruitment to this type of trial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Limited knowledge exists pertaining to advance care planning (ACP) among Colombian, Mexican, and Puerto Rican women with a cancer diagnosis living in Central Florida, in the USA. The purpose of the study is to identify factors that facilitated the completion of ACP and decisions making patterns among the three groups of Latinas. Methods: The research method used was an exploratory qualitative in-depth open-ended semi-structured interview with a grounded theoretical approach and thematic analysis. The interviews were conducted in Spanish with a purposeful sample of 45 Latinas (15 in each group) diagnosed with cancer. Results: A total of ten women (22 %) in the study documented at least one form of ACP. Thirty-five women identified obstacles to accessing information regarding ACP, relating this to insurance and financial factors. Among the Colombian women, one completed a living will, health care surrogate, and power of attorney (all forms of ACP), and three just a living will. Two Puerto Rican women completed all, two a living will, and one both a living will and an enduring power of attorney. Only one Mexican woman completed a living will. Conclusions: This study identifies a knowledge gap regarding ACP among Latina women with cancer diagnosis living in Central Florida, in the USA. Differences between the three groups exist as a result of migration/immigration history, family support, education, English language proficiency, income, knowledge gaps, and information ascertained by medical and health professionals. These differences contribute to their readiness, receptiveness, and willingness to engage in documenting a living will, a health care surrogate, and an enduring power of attorney for health decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To identify types of health influencers in tobacco cessation based on the frequency and characteristics of brief intervention activities. Methods: Longitudinal qualitative interviews were completed with 28 individuals posttraining. Results: Four individuals were categorized as Rarely Active, 5 as Active With Family and Friends, 9 as Active in the Workplace, and 10 as Proactive in Multiple Settings. Unique motivators, intervention behaviors, and barriers were documented. Some individuals displayed high levels of self-efficacy necessary for expanding the reach of community-based interventions. Conclusion: Training programs need to address the impact of contextual factors on initiating and sustaining intervention activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]