Health Disparity And Structural Violence Essay

     Illegal immigrants usually hold jobs that have bad conditions and worse pay.  Oftentimes, these jobs are found in sectors such as agriculture, construction, food-handling and manufacturing (Dwyer).  Unfortunately for the illegal individuals who acquire these jobs, they have no access to comprehensive health care, though their line of work tends to demand it.  Although illegal immigrants are consequently strapped for cash, many of them will not visit primary care physicians for fear of being deported.  This sets up a vicious cycle: individuals get sick yet ignore the signs.  When illnesses get remarkably worse and are too severe to treat at doctors' offices, the individuals then go to emergency rooms, where the cost is considerably greater.  More often than not, the immigrants cannot afford to pay their hospital bills.  The cost is then covered by the medical institutions and tax-payer dollars (Wolf).  While some argue that illegal migrants do not

Disparities in healthcare are a real and urgent problem in our nation. There is indisputable data supporting the fact that disparities exist not only across different racial groups, but also across the cultural and economic stratification of our society. Moreover, there is even data showing disparities among each of these respective groups along gender lines. So what can be done about these disparities to assure that all patients receive equal and adequate care? Well, there are certainly many political and governmental changes or modifications that would go a long way towards narrowing the gaps in healthcare, but such changes are beyond the scope of this paper. Instead, I will focus on the steps that I,

From evidence based practice, it has been proven that racism and discrimination is evident in our society. As defined by Webster’s Dictionary, “racism is the poor treatment or violence against people because of their race; and discrimination is the unfair treatment of a person or group of people differently from other people or groups of people” (Merriam Webster, 2015). However, in America many immigrants witness, and as well become victims of such behaviors. The hopes and dreams of happiness and sovereignty while in America for some can be a harsh reality. In fact, immigrants are faced with employment discrimination, healthcare discrimination and last but not least housing discrimination. However, this alone can be challenging while fighting to overcome oppression. In the article below these issues are addressed by Isabell Martinez a Hispanic immigrant, and examined alongside the critical race theory, which explains racial inequality in the U.S.

To consider the numbers of the problems is not to ignore the human side of the issue. Illegal immigrants are human beings, no different than anyone who is insured through an employer, as some illegals are. These people do not deserve to suffer or be at risk of spreading disease because they are afraid a trip to the doctor may result in deportation (Wolf, 2008). Also, some clinics and hospitals do not have interpreters for people who are ailing but cannot properly communicate. States like New York, Illinois, and Washington cover illegal immigrant children with state tax dollars in attempt to protect the most vulnerable members or society (Wolf, 2008).

The article Health Disparity and Structural Violence: How Fear Undermines Health Among Immigrants at Risk for Diabetes was extremely informative. The article identified “three dimensions of fear including (a) Cost; (b) Language,

The Southeast Asian American community faces many different health disparities. All the disparities this community faces can be directly attributed to their social barriers, language barriers, and socioeconomic status. Primary health disparities include the prevalence of Hepatitis B and liver cancer, cultural stereotypes that undermine health, and decreased health based on age. The stem of health disparities among Southeast Asian Americans could be explained by Hepatitis B.

Fear about health care cost is a major barrier to health care for AYA, specifically for lower-income and uninsured AYA. AYA who do have health insurance often are concerned about their confidentiality. Whether AYA are insured or not, cost may be a major factor in whether they seek medical care. It is important that clinics offer free or low-cost services whenever possible to ensure that AYA get the services they need (Advocates for Youth, 2008).

In recent discussions of health care disparities, a controversial issue has been whether racism is the cause of health care disparities or not. On one hand, some argue that racism is a serious problem in the health care system. From this perspective, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) states that there is a big gap between the health care quality received by minorities, and the quality of health care received by non-minorities, and the reason is due to racism. On the other hand, however, others argue that health care disparities are not due to racism. In the words of Sally Satel, one of this view’s main proponents, “White and black patients, on average don’t even visit the same population of

Health disparities are the inequalities that appear in the arrangement of healthcare and approaches to healthcare across different racial, ethnic, sexual orientation and socioeconomic group.

Health disparities are defined as unfair health differences experienced by people of different social, economic and/or environment background, including ethnic and cultural minorities (Jarvis, 2016 ). Racial and ethnic disparities adversely affect pregnant women and infants which limit their access to health care and other services resulting to low birth weight infants and preterm births. For example, preterm birth, low birth weight and infant mortality are higher in black population, compared to the white population (National Center for Health Statistics, 2012). Low birth weights and premature births puts them at high risk for long term health problems, social and financial consequences for the family and on the community. As they

Diabetes is a national health problem, and the burden of the disease and its consequences mainly affect Hispanics. While social factors of health models have improved our conceptualization of how certain contexts and environments influence an individual's ability to make healthy choices, a structural violence framework transcends traditional uni-dimensional analysis. Thus, a structural violence approach can reveal dynamics of social practices that operate across multiple dimensions of people's lives in ways that may not immediately appear related to health. Working with a Hispanic immigrant community in Albuquerque, New Mexico, we demonstrate how structural forces simultaneously directly inhibit access to appropriate health care services and

According to anthropologists, the impact of structural violence can be best represented by analyzing the global disparities in health and healthcare. The continuous violence employed by everyone who belong to a specific social order (Farmer, 2004: 315), structural violence, “at the root of much terrorism and bombardment, is much more likely to wither bodies slowly, very often through infectious diseases” (Farmer, 2004: 315). Furthermore, the imbalance in health and healthcare maintains a close relationship to “social inequality, including racism and gender inequality” (Farmer, 2004: 307), generating a higher impact on developing countries such as Vietnam, Haiti, Venezuela and Liberia. Although the effects upon each region might be divergent,

The broader concept of societal injustice may explain health risks, behaviour and outcomes such as economic and an inequality-adjusted human development correlate with generative, parental and child health outcomes inequities. The poor health outcomes manifested by gender inequities via discriminatory practices, inequitable health provision service, health research inequities, and differential exposures and vulnerability to diseases (Shannon GD, 2017, p. 2). This does not occur from any other structural and social harmful forces. Moreover, structural violence is an inclusive structure to demonstrates the system through which social power in terms of poverty, racism, and inequity of gender become embodied as experiences of people and outcomes

Many illegal immigrants are given poor paying jobs that many United States citizens do not wish to perform. Many of these jobs are very dangerous and are to little benefit for the migrant workers. For example, in California, many migrant workers plant or work on farms. They are exposed to toxins all day such as fertilizers and pesticides. Then, they are paid very little and have a very poor amount of resources and money to support or send back to their family. Since the toxins that they are exposed to may harm their health, the need for proper medical care and insurance is needed. Due to them being undocumented and given poor funds, many will not get the chance to receive the help that they need. Proper healthcare, food, and shelter are basic needs that I feel every citizen or resident, no matter what their status is, should be able to fulfill these basic needs. Unfortunately, that is not the reality for illegal immigrants residing within the United States.

Structural violence on the other is the type of violence, one experienced by the Adivasi because of a national water dam project, “the violence of nationalism becomes explicit both through the categories of poor who are deemed appropriate to neglect and through the failure to help those who are not considered part of the national community” (Gupta, 19). In fact it would be more accurate to say that the structural violence the Adivasi experience was due to State policies and practices, which came to light because of the Narmada Sardar Sarovar Dam project. Baviskar describes the village of Ajanvara a is remarkably egalitarian. Each man who is the part of the patriarchal lineage of the village has been given cultivable piece of land meaning there are no landless farmers and no waged laborers. Baviskar accredits Anjanvara’s strong bond of reciprocity with neighboring clans and villages to intricate webs of kinship and marriage. The reciprocity and collective sharing of labor or laah have an important implication in the politics of honor in the Bhilala community. Being an egalitarian society, the Bhilala community members pursue power and status by accumulation of symbolic capital. The tendency to accumulate power through symbolic capital such as honor is done given the constraints of economic ways of demonstrating it and because of the egalitarian nature of the community, but just because nature of the society does not exclude women from patriarchal forms of power. The status