Food Insecurity Among Immigrants and Racial/ethnic Minorities in the United States

Food Insecurity Among Immigrants and Racial/ethnic Minorities in the United States
Author: Ana Maria McCormick
Publisher:
Total Pages: 59
Release: 2014
Genre: Food consumption
ISBN: 9781321049671

Food insecurity is a lingering problem in the United States, with numerous implications including compromised diet quality, psychological distress, malnutrition, and hunger. The literature indicates that the prevalence of food security is disproportionate between racial/ethnic groups, with blacks and Latinos experiencing higher rates than non-Latino whites. Using new assimilation theory as a theoretical framework, this study investigates the relationship between food insecurity and immigrant status and race/ethnicity. Race/ethnicity is a central component in this study, as immigrants encounter racial/ethnic boundaries upon their arrival to the United States that may affect food security. Using the 2007-2010 waves of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, I find that when socioeconomic status is held constant, white immigrants are not statistically different than white citizens, but black citizens and Latinos, who have relatively similar rates of food insecurity, are more likely to be food insecure than white citizens. Black immigrants are much more likely to be food insecure than any of the other groups. The results confirm that immigrant and racial/ethnic disparities in food security exist in the United States and there is a clear immigrant and racial/ethnic hierarchy. The results have implications for food assistance policies and indicate a continuing pattern of racial/ethnic inequality in the United States.

Food Insecurity Among Hispanics and Immigrants in the U.S.

Food Insecurity Among Hispanics and Immigrants in the U.S.
Author: Devin Powers
Publisher:
Total Pages: 101
Release: 2016
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9781634858144

Food-insecure households have difficulty at some time during the year in providing enough food for all their members due to a lack of resources. In 2014, 14.0 percent of all U.S. households were food insecure, versus 22.4 percent of Hispanic households. This book estimates the extent and severity of food insecurity across diverse groups of Hispanic households using 2011-2014 data from the Current Population Survey's Food Security Supplement. Furthermore, this book analyzes immigrant families' Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participation and food insecurity, using the Food Security Supplement of the Current Population Survey, 2003-10.

Communities in Action

Communities in Action
Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 583
Release: 2017-04-27
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0309452961

In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.

Race, Ethnicity and Traditional Food Markets

Race, Ethnicity and Traditional Food Markets
Author: Hui Qian
Publisher:
Total Pages: 202
Release: 2019
Genre: Electronic dissertations
ISBN: 9781392689387

Food insecurity has received considerable attention from academics and policymakers alike for its negative health, economic, social and environmental consequences. Sociologists concerned with social justice have particularly noted the unequal distribution of food insecurity across groups, as it serves as a powerful manifestation of existing discrimination and inequality in current food systems. With the majority of scholarship focusing on the economic contributors of food insecurity, our current knowledge of the non-economic factors that affect food security is limited and incomplete. To address this gap, this dissertation examines across-group food security heterogeneity from the perspective of race and ethnicity, whose significance to minority populations' achievement of food security is often overlooked. In the first chapter, a systematic review of major local and national food security programs in the United States acquaints readers with existing efforts to reduce domestic food insecurity and identifies key areas for improvement. The second chapter builds on the findings from the first paper by investigating the ways through which access to traditional food markets impacts racial and ethnic minority populations' food security in a case study in Honolulu, Hawai'i. The third chapter analyzes the barriers and challenges of traditional food markets from the same case study, serving as a basis on which to offer theoretical and empirical suggestions for food security improvement. By making clear the positive role of traditional food markets in racial and ethnic minority groups' achievement of food security, this dissertation advances our understanding of food security as a multidimensional issue. It also contributes to multiple literatures, primarily food security, food and nutrition assistance, traditional food markets, immigrant entrepreneurship and supermarket concentration.

Measuring Racial Discrimination

Measuring Racial Discrimination
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 335
Release: 2004-07-24
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0309091268

Many racial and ethnic groups in the United States, including blacks, Hispanics, Asians, American Indians, and others, have historically faced severe discriminationâ€"pervasive and open denial of civil, social, political, educational, and economic opportunities. Today, large differences among racial and ethnic groups continue to exist in employment, income and wealth, housing, education, criminal justice, health, and other areas. While many factors may contribute to such differences, their size and extent suggest that various forms of discriminatory treatment persist in U.S. society and serve to undercut the achievement of equal opportunity. Measuring Racial Discrimination considers the definition of race and racial discrimination, reviews the existing techniques used to measure racial discrimination, and identifies new tools and areas for future research. The book conducts a thorough evaluation of current methodologies for a wide range of circumstances in which racial discrimination may occur, and makes recommendations on how to better assess the presence and effects of discrimination.

Black Identities

Black Identities
Author: Mary C. WATERS
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 431
Release: 2009-06-30
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780674044944

The story of West Indian immigrants to the United States is generally considered to be a great success. Mary Waters, however, tells a very different story. She finds that the values that gain first-generation immigrants initial success--a willingness to work hard, a lack of attention to racism, a desire for education, an incentive to save--are undermined by the realities of life and race relations in the United States. Contrary to long-held beliefs, Waters finds, those who resist Americanization are most likely to succeed economically, especially in the second generation.

Immigration as a Social Determinant of Health

Immigration as a Social Determinant of Health
Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 77
Release: 2019-01-28
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0309482178

Since 1965 the foreign-born population of the United States has swelled from 9.6 million or 5 percent of the population to 45 million or 14 percent in 2015. Today, about one-quarter of the U.S. population consists of immigrants or the children of immigrants. Given the sizable representation of immigrants in the U.S. population, their health is a major influence on the health of the population as a whole. On average, immigrants are healthier than native-born Americans. Yet, immigrants also are subject to the systematic marginalization and discrimination that often lead to the creation of health disparities. To explore the link between immigration and health disparities, the Roundtable on the Promotion of Health Equity held a workshop in Oakland, California, on November 28, 2017. This summary of that workshop highlights the presentations and discussions of the workshop.

Cultivating Food Justice

Cultivating Food Justice
Author: Alison Hope Alkon
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 405
Release: 2011
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0262016265

Documents how racial and social inequalities are built into our food system, and how communities are creating environmentally sustainable and socially just alternatives.

Women Redefining the Experience of Food Insecurity

Women Redefining the Experience of Food Insecurity
Author: Janet Page-Reeves
Publisher: Lexington Books
Total Pages: 345
Release: 2014-07-03
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0739185276

Women Redefining the Experience of Food Insecurity: Life Off the Edge of the Table is about understanding the relationship between food insecurity and women’s agency. The contributors explore both the structural constraints that limit what and how much people eat, and the myriad ways that women creatively and strategically re-structure their own fields of action in relation to food, demonstrating that the nature of food insecurity is multi-dimensional. The chapters portray how women develop strategies to make it possible to have food in the cupboard and on the table to be able to feed their families. Exploring these themes, this book offers a lens for thinking about the food system that incorporates women as agentive actors and links women’s everyday food-related activities with ideas about food justice, food sovereignty, and food citizenship. Taken together, the chapters provide a unique perspective on how we can think broadly about the issue of food insecurity in relation to gender, culture, inequality, poverty, and health disparity. By problematizing the mundane world of how women procure and prepare food in a context of scarcity, this book reveals dynamics, relationships and experiences that would otherwise go unremarked. Normally under the radar, these processes are embedded in power relations that demand analysis, and demonstrate strategic individual action that requires recognition. All of the chapters provide a counter to caricatured notions that the choices women make are irresponsible or ignorant, or that the lives of women from low-income, low-wealth communities are predicated on impotence and weakness. Yet, the authors do not romanticize women as uniformly resilient or consistently heroic. Instead, they explore the contradictions inherent in the ways that marginalized, seemingly powerless women ignore, resist, embrace and challenge hegemonic, patriarchal systems through their relationship with food.