Despite documented status, many California immigrants have negative perceptions or experiences of public charge policy
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Series Title(s):
- Health policy fact sheet (Online)
- Author(s):
- Rodriguez, Michael A., (Of UCLA Center for Health Policy Research), author Kietzman, Kathryn G., author Morales, Brenda, (Of UCLA Center for Health Policy Research), author Pourat, Nadereh, 1959- author
- Contributor(s):
- UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, issuing body.
- Publication:
- Los Angeles, CA : UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, April 2022
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- Asian People -- statistics & numerical data Eligibility Determination Emigrants and Immigrants Hispanic or Latino -- statistics & numerical data Undocumented Immigrants Public Assistance California United States
- Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- The health of immigrants is a topic of major concern, underscored by the large population of immigrants and the reliance of the U.S. economy on this population for essential labor needs. Unfortunately, the restrictive federal policy environment adversely shapes the health of immigrants. One such restrictive policy is the Public Charge Rule. Much of the research documenting how immigrants’ access to health care is adversely impacted by the public charge rule is focused on immigrants with undocumented status and their children. This research has highlighted how fears of being deported due to being labeled a public charge discourages the use of public services even among those who are eligible. While recent research has examined California’s Latinx and Asian immigrants’ perceptions of their lived experiences in the U.S., there is limited population-based research on how legal status modifies the impact of adverse perceptions of policies such as the public charge rule. In this fact sheet, we report on data from the Research on Immigrant Health and State Policy Study (RIGHTS) that are related to the experiences and perceptions of Latinx and Asian immigrants in California. RIGHTS is a follow-on survey of the 2018, 2019, and 2020 California Health Interview Surveys (CHIS). Respondents reported their perceptions and experiences when accessing health care and using other public benefits. Understanding how immigrants’ behaviors are affected by perceptions of public charge policies is important, as such behaviors can impact care seeking behaviors and perpetuate inequities in health care access and outcomes. Our findings show that across legal status, two-thirds (67%) of respondents had negative perceptions and/or experiences related to the public charge policy (Exhibit 1). Furthermore, a substantial proportion (42%) of immigrants with legal status in California (i.e., noncitizens with green cards) reported negative perceptions. Exhibit 2 compares negative perceptions and/or experiences with public charge by ethnicity. We found that higher proportions of Latinx immigrants than Asian immigrants had negative public charge perceptions and/ or experiences.
- Copyright:
- Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY license. (More information)
- Extent:
- 1 online resource (1 PDF file (3 pages))
- Illustrations:
- Illustrations
- NLM Unique ID:
- 9918486669006676 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918486669006676