Abstract
Restrictive US immigration laws and law enforcement undermine immigrant health by generating fear and stress, disrupting families and communities, and eroding social and economic wellbeing. The inequality and stress created by immigration law and law enforcement may also generate disparities in health among immigrants with different legal statuses. However, existing research does not find consistent evidence of immigrant legal status disparities in health, possibly because it does not disaggregate immigrants by generation, defined by age at migration. Immigration and life course theory suggest that the health consequences of non-citizen status may be greater among 1.5-generation immigrants, who grew up in the same society that denies them formal membership, than among the 1st generation, who immigrated as adolescents or adults. In this study, we examine whether there are legal status disparities in health within and between the 1st generation and the 1.5 generation of 23,288 Latinx immigrant adults interviewed in the 2005–2017 waves of the California Health Interview Survey. We find evidence of legal status disparities in heart disease within the 1st generation and for high blood pressure and diabetes within the 1.5 generation. Non-citizens have higher rates of poor self-rated health and distress within both generations. Socioeconomic disadvantage and limited access to care largely account for the worse health of legally disadvantaged 1st- and 1.5-generation Latinx adults in California.
Highlights
Immigrant Legal Status and HealthImmigrant rights range across what Joseph (2020) calls the “documentation status continuum”
We examine legal status disparities in health within and between 1st-generation and 1.5-generation adult immigrants of Latinx origins living in California
The rights granted by immigrant legal status dictate how long someone can be in the United States, the ability to transition into other legal statuses, the right to sponsor family for immigration, the right to work or change employers, the right to travel in and out of the United States, and the right to access federally funded services, such as health insurance, welfare benefits, and student loans
Summary
Immigrant Legal Status and HealthImmigrant rights range across what Joseph (2020) calls the “documentation status continuum” (see Bean et al, 2015; Oropesa et al, 2015; Patler, 2018a; Waters et al, 2015). Because legal status determines one’s rights, including access to socioeconomic opportunities and health care, and stress imposed by the threat of immigration enforcement, we expect to observe legal status disparities in health among both generations.
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