The Limits of ‘Loaves and Fishes:’ NGO Restraints in the Delivery of Immigrant Health Care

• In Event: 3421 - Health Equity, Social Justice, and Social Movements

Abstract

What does it mean for undocumented Latinx migrants to be the deserving poor? While scholars have extensively examined immigrant deservingness, few studies have explored the relationship between constructions of deservingness and migrants’ racial subordination. This study evaluates the experiences and consequences of racialized deservingness for low-income, undocumented Latinx migrants in need of care at a community-based organization in Houston, Texas I refer to as Justicia y Paz (JyP). Referencing eleven months of ethnographic experiences and thirty-six semi-structured in-depth interviews with migrants and volunteers affiliated with JyP, this study illuminates how NGOs with health equity aims can reproduce healthy disparities. It uses critical race theory’s framework of “interest-convergence” to inform the analysis, finding that undocumented Latinx migrants’ deservingness for care depends on their racialization as migrant workers and welfare-dependent. Accordingly, this study contributes to the literature on immigrant deservingness and addresses the actual potential of community-based organizations with equity oriented aims.

Author

• Anthony Michael Jimenez, The University of Minnesota