Stories from the Front

Stories from the Front
Author: Jacqueline Marie Leung-Heras
Publisher:
Total Pages: 91
Release: 2010
Genre: Migrant agricultural laborers
ISBN:

Migrant farm workers experience many hardships during their time in the U.S. One major problem faced by migrant farm workers is the lack of access to and utilization of health care services. Migrant farm workers usually do not qualify for services in the U.S., and often do not have any services available to them when in Mexico. This study examined the utilization and satisfaction of health services received by migrant farm workers. A total of seven Latino migrant farm workers were interviewed. Analysis indicated each worker had utilized the health program available to them in Iowa and were satisfied with the service they received. The majority of workers reported that not having health insurance impeded the likelihood of their seeking medical services in Mexico. They were satisfied with any services they received during their time in Iowa. The findings stress the importance of providing additional prevention health services to migrant farm workers to increase access, utilization, and satisfaction with health services.

Latino Farmworkers in the Eastern United States

Latino Farmworkers in the Eastern United States
Author: Thomas A. Arcury
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 246
Release: 2009-02-27
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0387883479

They work at some of America’s most hazardous jobs, have few protections, and receive some of the lowest wages. Latino Farmworkers in the Eastern United States describes this understudied and underserved population. Taking a social justice stance, this volume examines the health and living conditions of workers in agriculture, while advocating for equality. Contributors cover all major areas of illness and injury (including occupational, environmental, infections, and pesticides), while also focusing on systemic social conditions, from lax industry regulations to lack of basic services—problems that are exacerbated by workers’ status as recent immigrants. Mental health burdens from the effects of discrimination to substance use, as well as the cumulative impact of workers’ separation from families are discussed for a comprehensive, meticulously documented resource. Written to serve both the seasoned professional and the newcomer, Latino Farmworkers in the Eastern United States is a bedrock source of information for those providing health and social services in the community, for researchers investigating health and safety disparities, and for advocates and policymakers working to correct them.

Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies

Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies
Author: Seth M. Holmes
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 323
Release: 2023-11-28
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0520399455

Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies provides an intimate examination of the everyday lives, suffering, and resistance of Mexican migrants in our contemporary food system. Seth Holmes, an anthropologist and MD in the mold of Paul Farmer and Didier Fassin, shows how market forces, anti-immigrant sentiment, and racism undermine health and health care. Holmes was invited to trek with his companions clandestinely through the desert into Arizona and was jailed with them before they were deported. He lived with Indigenous families in the mountains of Oaxaca and in farm labor camps in the United States, planted and harvested corn, picked strawberries, and accompanied sick workers to clinics and hospitals. This “embodied anthropology” deepens our theoretical understanding of the ways in which social inequities come to be perceived as normal and natural in society and in health care. In a substantive new epilogue, Holmes and Indigenous Oaxacan scholar Jorge Ramirez-Lopez provide a current examination of the challenges facing farmworkers and the lives and resistance of the protagonists featured in the book.