“Legal status” is a critical title assigned by governments that dictates access to many socioeconomic resources, it also matters for health and overall well-being. “Illegality” is the process of assigning opportunities and resources for immigrant subgroups based on state-created legal status categories (e.g., undocumented/unauthorized, lawful permanent residents, naturalized).
As public health researchers, we can shed light on the structural sources of work-related inequities that matter for health and use these findings to inform policies that better protect workers, regardless of their citizenship status.”
– Dr. Alein Haro-Ramos, UC Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow
In the U.S., legal status categories are used to determine which immigrants may have access to healthcare, social assistance programs, educational opportunities, and formal employment prospects. In my research, I argue that illegality is a form of structural racism because it disadvantages immigrants of color, especially Latina/o/x people.
My research also examines illegality’s role in constraining quality work opportunities for immigrants and its consequences for health. For example, since 1986, the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) prohibits U.S. employers from knowingly hiring undocumented immigrants. This means that undocumented people are systematically excluded from formal, regulated work arrangements and consequently become overrepresented and subjected to low-wage, flexible work arrangements, such as day laborers or working “under the table.” In these precarious settings, immigrant workers are more likely to experience labor violations, such as wage theft, and employer retaliation, such as threats of being deported to immigration authorities or job loss. Through federal policies like IRCA, undocumented immigrants become an almost permanent underclass of low-wage workers subject to employment instability and socioeconomic disadvantage. While salary and employment conditions are important determinants of health, it remains an understudied area of public health research, especially among immigrant populations. Beyond exposing workers to occupational risk factors that affect health, employment (and the quality of that employment) determines income, where one can afford to live, the food they can buy, and where and whether they can access healthcare. Therefore, it is critical that public health researchers and policymakers examine how structural factors constraining immigrants’ employment opportunities are also shaping their health.
Work and employment are key institutional mechanisms operating across the life course to shape the health outcomes of racialized immigrant groups. For example, some of my research studies focus on groups of precarious migrant workers, like Latino day laborers; here, I assess the occupational and non-occupational risk factors day laborers encounter in their daily work lives and how these risk factors are associated with adverse physical and mental health outcomes. In another study, I examine citizenship, race, and ethnicity disparities in unmet need for paid leave in California, a progressive and immigrant-friendly state. While paid leave benefits are available to all eligible workers regardless of citizenship, I found inequities in who can access this benefit. For instance, noncitizen Latinx workers are more likely to report an unmet need for paid leave due to fear of losing their jobs. In my future work, I plan to examine the long-term effects of illegality and the role of work as a mechanism of legal status disparities at older ages.
As public health researchers, we can shed light on the structural sources of work-related inequities that matter for health and use these findings to inform policies that better protect workers, regardless of their citizenship status.
