Social Problems in the Age of COVID-19 Vol 2 by Muschert Glenn W. Budd Kristen M

Author:Muschert, Glenn W., Budd, Kristen M. [Muschert, Glenn W., Budd, Kristen M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781447360612
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Policy Press
Published: 2020-10-21T00:00:00+00:00

Research Evidence

The United States

The pandemic may harm low wage migrant workers and undocumented migrants without access to healthcare. US inequalities impact legal status, employment, and healthcare access.

Nature of job (frontline): The Center for Migration Studies estimates that 19.8 million immigrants work in “essential critical infrastructure” (health, manufacturing, food, service, infrastructure, safety, etc.), about half are naturalized citizens, 4.6 million are legal non-citizens and 5.5 million are undocumented. Naturalized citizens comprise 67 percent of immigrants (ie migrants) in healthcare. Undocumented immigrants are 54 percent of foreign-born agriculture workers; 50 percent of foreign-born work in construction, including plumbers and electricians, and in tire, cement, rubber, and household appliance manufacturing, significant to the economy and its functioning. Frontline migrant workers in healthcare, agriculture, cleaning, and domestic work, and migrants doing “essential work” must go to work or lose jobs without unemployment benefits. These workers are putting their families and themselves in harm’s way.

Relief exclusion: The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) offers a tax rebate that is not available to those who have filed tax returns without a Social Security number; or where either spouse has filed without a Social Security number. The CARES Act excludes many taxpaying, mixed-status families from receiving critical federal stimulus relief. In 2018, there were 3.8 million “mixed-status” households containing 18.3 million people. Thus, CARES excludes many migrant workers, including international students, even though they paid taxes.

Prohibitive cost/limited access: High healthcare costs combine with health insurance constraints to limit healthcare access. Because health insurance is typically obtained through employment, migrants without full-time employment may be unable to afford private insurance and public health insurance may not offer coverage. Individuals with low incomes may experience COVID-19 infection due to lack of insurance. Non-citizens are far more likely to be uninsured. Among the nonelderly, 23 percent of lawful immigrants and 45 percent of undocumented immigrants are uninsured compared to 9 percent of citizens. The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates out-of-pocket COVID-19 costs to be between $10,000 and $20,000, or more, which is equivalent to almost 50 percent of the annual median wage, $40,000, of a full-time migrant worker. Given 20 percent of foreign-born migrants, and 50 percent of undocumented migrants, are without health insurance coverage, the US healthcare system looks precarious. The US presidential administration has not specified if treatment costs for those seeking care for COVID-19-like symptoms who test negative, will be covered. It is unclear how federal pandemic funding will be allocated.

Mobility and legal constraints: Consulates have closed and visa processing is suspended in many countries. Thousands of migrants have lost jobs or face cancelled internships, are trapped without work and income, ineligible to receive unemployment insurance and stimulus cash payments, and cannot return home. Some have been rendered “illegal” through lack of transport or access to consulates for visas and passports, which may hamper healthcare access. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is granting temporary work visas to returning H-2A and H-2B migrants who are “temporary” but now considered pandemic essential. This pandemic reveals the

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