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The European refugee crisis has gained worldwide attention with daily media coverage both in and outside Germany. Representations of refugees in media and political discourse in relation to Germany participate in a Gramscian “war of position” over symbols, policies, and, ultimately, social and material resources, with potentially fatal consequences. These representations shift blame from historical, political‐economic structures to the displaced people themselves. They demarcate the “deserving” refugee from the “undeserving” migrant and play into fear of cultural, religious, and ethnic difference in the midst of increasing anxiety and precarity for many in Europe. Comparative perspectives suggest that anthropology can play an important role in analyzing these phenomena, highlighting sites of contestation, imagining alternatives, and working toward them. [refugee, media, immigration, crisis, Germany, Europe]

Migration and Health: Critical Perspectives offers a radical rethinking of the field by unsettling conventional ideas of mobility and borders to highlight the ways in which they produce health inequalities. Covering a wide range of topics, the text provides insight through a critical lens and proposes areas for intervention along with future research needs to address the health inequities that affect migrants. It illustrates how a critical perspective can deepen our understanding of the relationship between migration and health, which remains a defining global issue of our century. The text employs a critical approach to examine the structural conditions of inequality and larger historical and political processes, recognizing that exclusionary bordering practices increasingly occur away from physical points of entry. It posits the concept of migration as complex, tangled, and multi-directional and underscores how migrant vulnerability can shape the lives of people in broader communities. Furthermore, it acknowledges diverse and intersectional standpoints, as well as shifting spatial and temporal influences. Chapters include coverage of health in transit; health care access and utilization; clinical encounters; communicable disease; labor and occupational health; gender and sexuality; immigration enforcement, detention, deportation; and the effects of forced displacement on refugee and asylum seeker health. The text is useful for students and scholars of migration or health disparities seeking to understand how the two issues can be approached in a more holistic and critical way. It is further aimed at practitioners and policymakers who are interested in gaining familiarity with the structural conditions of inequality along with the larger historical and political processes that influence contemporary migration patterns.

Objectives. To identify appropriate interventions to prevent injury, we conducted a qualitative study among commercial shrimp fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico. Methods. Using qualitative and participatory research methods, including interviews, photovoice, and workplace observations in southeast Texas and the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, we examined the social‒structural dimensions that contribute to physical and psychological injury. Results. We found that multiple layers of vulnerability and danger exist among shrimpers with interacting themes: (1) recognizing risk, (2) precarious employment, and (3) psychological distress. Conclusions. Our results add to the growing body of knowledge that emphasizes the negative health impacts of underregulated, high-risk, and physically demanding work performed primarily by im/migrants. Public Health Implications. Our findings highlight the larger social‒structural conditions and context of hardships endemic to migrant labor and suggest implications for practice and policy interventions. ( Am J Public Health. 2024;114(8):824–832. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2024.307696 )

Rural populations in the United States are faced with a variety of health disparities that complicate access to care. Community health workers (CHWs) and their Spanish-speaking counterparts, promotores de salud, are well-equipped to address rural health access issues, provide education, and ultimately assuage these disparities. In this article, we compare community health workers in the states of Indiana and Texas, based on the results of two separate research studies, in order to (1) investigate the unique role of CHWs in rural communities and (2) understand how their advocacy efforts represent a central form of caregiving. Drawing on ethnographic, qualitative data—including interviews, photovoice, and participant observation—we analyze how CHWs connect structurally vulnerable clients in rural areas to resources, health education, and health and social services. Our primary contribution to existing scholarship on CHWs is the elaboration of advocacy as a form of caregiving to improve individual health outcomes as well as provoke structural change in the form of policy development. Finally, we describe how CHWs became especially critical in addressing disparities among rural populations in the wake of COVID-19, using their advocacy-as-caregiving role that was developed and well-established before the pandemic. These frontline workers are more vital than ever to address disparities and are a critical force in overcoming structural vulnerability and inequities in health in the United States.

The largest minority in the United States, Hispanic populations are also one of the least vaccinated groups. Promoting vaccine confidence and uptake among Hispanics is critical to reducing health inequalities. We investigated the effectiveness of an intervention that combined a bilingual flu vaccine brochure plus culturally tailored, primary care physician (PCP) led influenza vaccination Question and Answer (Q&A) videos. We measured patients' vaccination attitudes/beliefs, practices, and intentions. In total, 693 Hispanic patients participated in the baseline survey and 199 took the follow-up survey. At baseline, 32.7 % did not get the flu vaccine in the previous flu season. Disagreement of or feeling unsure about the statement “vaccines are a good thing” was 20.2 %. Univariate analysis showed that lower household income was negatively associated with patients' flu vaccine uptake (55.7 % with < $75,000 household income vs. 66.7 % with $75,000 or above, p = 0.04). After the intervention, 78.4 % agreed or strongly agreed that they would get the flu vaccine, compared to 50.3 % at baseline. Also, 87.4 % of the respondents agreed or strongly agreed that “vaccines are a good thing” and 39.6 % have improved vaccine beliefs. Of all who didn't get a flu vaccine, 54.5 % agreed or strongly agreed to get one in the next season; and of those who didn't get a COVID vaccine at baseline, 38.5 % would like to get a flu vaccine in the future. Regarding positive changes on flu vaccination intent, the intervention worked the best among those who had never graduated high schools (Odds Ratio (OR) = 16.72, 95 %CI: 2.44–114.71, p = 0.004) and those whose beliefs in vaccines increased following the intervention (OR = 3.57, 95 %CI: 1.03–12.38, p = 0.045). A low-cost physician-led, culturally tailored, bilingual, and low-cost intervention improved Hispanic patients' positive vaccine beliefs and intent to be vaccinated.

Women's experiences of migration, and their relationship to a host country, vary significantly from those of migrant men simply because pregnancy is a possibility. The concept of \"demographic theft\" highlights popular anxieties regarding high fertility among foreigners, including undocumented migrants. This article examines pregnant undocumented women's experiences with the health care system and relationship to the state in Germany. It also provides a discussion of how a restrictive immigration climate, particular models of citizenship, and liberal family laws have resulted in unique practices surrounding paternity claims. It is based on long-term ethnographic data to highlight contradictions and ambiguities in the policy environment and utilizes the notion of stratified reproduction to bring new evidence regarding mothers' deportability and practices of paternity.

Universal notions of a \"right to health\" for unauthorized migrants operate together with incongruous state and international policies. These ambivalent policies demand ethnographic attention, since they have resulted in a two-tiered system in host countries and foster short-term, improvisational remedies. Medical care for unauthorized migrants is typically left in the hands of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and permitted under the guise of sympathy and generosity rather than anchored in policy. This paper draws upon ethnographic fieldwork in Germany to present the viewpoints of physicians engaged in medical humanitarianism and discuss the complications associated with filling access gaps through NGOs. It explores the range of motivations—political, religious, and humanitarian—that drive physicians to provide care to marginalized populations. In recent years, I argue that NGO demands upon the state have moved from requests to decriminalize medical aid to demands for compensation for the significant amount of services they provide. Finally, as improvisational medical aid has shifted from being an exception to becoming the rule, volunteers have become frustrated by serving as \"stopgaps\" while simultaneously arguing for systemic change. The paper examines physicians' roles as gatekeepers and the moral/ethical dilemmas that arise, illustrating how NGO practices underscore neoliberal forms of governmentality.

Although migration has always been part of human behaviour, it isn't natural; rather, it is a necessary response to various forms of violence and adversity, says Heide Castañeda .

Recent scholarship theorizes temporalities as an important part of the migration experience, with temporal insecurity being a crucial element of (im)mobility and inequality via the phenomenon of waiting. In this article, we examine how temporalities and experiences of waiting influence health status and access to care, using ethnographic data to articulate how temporalities impact resources and how a doxa of waiting is enacted, placing some groups at heightened risk of illness and pain compared to others. Drawing upon a sample of 100 immigrant families with mixed legal status living in United States-Mexico border communities, we focus on an understudied area in anthropology: oral health concerns. We illuminate the precarious social contexts of these families and illustrate how they navigate a variety of temporally available dental care options. By centering temporalities in our analysis, we show that the quest for care is characterized by waiting, a state that is naturalized for migrant populations who may be deemed less deserving of resources. Waiting produces forms of violence that are incremental and cumulative yet ultimately rendered invisible precisely because of its long duration. A focus on temporalities highlights the unique strengths, risks, and needs of communities, which are key to addressing health equity.