Investigating the Impact of COVID-19 on Undocumented Immigrants

• In Event: Who Uses Public Health Resources and Who is Seen as Deserving of Doing So

Abstract

More than a year after the first reported case of COVID-19 in the US, it has become clear that minorities are suffering a disproportionate share of cases and deaths. Immigrants are especially vulnerable because despite working primarily in industries with high COVID-19 risk, they remain barred from most government healthcare programs. Yet, we know little about how undocumented immigrants have navigated the pandemic, especially with rising anti-immigrant rhetoric and immigration enforcement. How have healthcare restrictions shaped how immigrants coped with the COVID-19 pandemic? To answer this question, I use social media advertisements to collect survey data from a large sample of undocumented immigrants across the US. I then merge the survey data with an original dataset outlining availability of county-level healthcare programs for undocumented immigrants, sanctuary-city status and local partisan make-up. The results suggest that immigrants remained resistant to seek medical care, even when it was needed, particularly in Republican states. Despite lower rates of medical use, immigrants who lived in democratic-leaning states reported higher willingness to get vaccinated. The results of this study contribute to scholarship on attitudes towards immigrants and healthcare inequities.

Author

• Cesar Daniel Vargas Nunez, Stanford University