The U.S. Health System and Immigration: An Institutional Interpretation1 |
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Authors: | Alejandro Portes Donald Light Patricia Fernández‐Kelly |
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Affiliation: | 1. Department of Sociology, Princeton University, 106 Wallace Hall, Princeton, New Jersey 08544;2. e‐mail: aportes@princeton.edu.;3. University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, University Educational Center, Suite 1114, 40 East Laurel Road, Stratford, New Jersey 08084. |
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Abstract: | We examine the institutions that comprise the U.S. health system and their relationship to a surging immigrant population. The clash between the system and this human flow originates in the large number of immigrants who are unauthorized, poor, and uninsured and, hence, unable to access a system largely based on ability to pay. Basic concepts from sociological theory are brought to bear on the analysis of this clash and its consequences. Data from a recently completed study of health institutions in three areas of the United States are used as an empirical basis to illustrate various aspects of this complex relation. Implications of our results for theory and future health policy are discussed. |
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Keywords: | health healthcare immigrants institutions policy poverty |
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