Entitled to nothing : the struggle for immigrant health care in the age of welfare reform /

Immigration is, of course, one of the continuing public issues in the US: How many immigrants should be allowed in? What should be done about undocumented or illegal immigrants? For sociologist Park (Univ. of Minnesota), the issue is reproductive services for immigrant women. Federal and state governments have been concerned about providing immigrants with services such as prenatal care for pregnant immigrant women, and have variously attempted to limit such services, referring to someone who inappropriately seeks or receives such services as becoming a public charge or burden. In a not totally unbiased study, Park tells a story of this aspect of recent immigration history. In four areas in California in the late 1990s, she interviewed 101 key individuals in local health facilities, immigrant organizations, and public service agencies about their experiences in providing health services to immigrant women. She concludes that "the major welfare and immigration reforms passed in the 1990s had devastating effects on health care access for low-income immigrants," and that this policy "promotes a neoliberal ideology of personal responsibility and criminal dependency." Summing Up: Recommended. All levels/libraries. D. Harper University of Rochester