Health Through a Human Right Lens at the US-Mexico Border: Increasing Access to Healthcare for Central American Immigrants

Abstract

The number of immigrants seeking entry into the U.S. through asylum requests or through irregular means is increasing, and most come from the Northern Triangle of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. Immigrants come fleeing extreme poverty, violence, health and social inequities, and drastic climate changes. Most had limited access to healthcare at home, and even more limited care along the journey. Those that are allowed entry into the U.S., are confronted with feeling unwelcome in many communities, having to navigate an array of local, state, and federal laws that regulate access to healthcare. We need immigration policies that preserve the health, dignity with a multinational policy for provision of healthcare through a human rights lens from point of origin to point of destination.

Pathways to mental health care: Latinos’ help-seeking preferences.

“…Those that make it to the United States will continue to experience stressors that may adversely impact their mental health outcomes. These include the need to adapt to a new social environment with different cultural norms, customs, laws, rules, and language; having undocumented status; discrimination based on nativity, race, or ethnicity; cultural and language barriers; poverty, food insecurity, and housing instability; and limited access to public health and social services (Alegría et al, 2007; Arbona et al, 2010; Bucay-Harari et al, 2020; Hirai et al, 2015; Jasso et al, 2004; Pérez et al, 2008; Portes, 2003; Venturi et al, 2022). Many further experience a lack of familial or community support systems that can help them adjust to their new host society, may have come with underdeveloped coping skills, or may continue to subscribe to deep beliefs about collectivism/familism rather than the individualism they encounter in the United States, further contributing to ongoing mental distress (Chang et al, 2013; Kuo et al, 2015; Maria Bermúdez et al, 2010).…”

“…Beatings, extortion, kidnapping, theft, human trafficking, sexual abuse, and even abandonment when injured, are all experiences immigrants encounter commonly, perpetrated by many of the organized crime groups tasked with bringing them to the United States (Bucay-Harari et al, 2020). Coupled with the dire conditions they left behind in their countries of origin (Venturi et al, 2022), these stressful conditions may fuel increased mental health concerns, including anxiety, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and suicidal ideation within the Latino community.…”