Abstract
As Congress priorities the immigration debate on increased border security, the fate of an estimated 11 million undocumented citizens remains uncertain. Stuck in between partisan politics and practical solutions are mixed-status families in which some members of the family are U.S. citizens while other members are in the country without proper authorization. This paper, examines the relationship between risk of deportation and Medicaid use drawing from a nationally sample of mothers from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Survey. These data are then merged with data from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to create a contextual risk of deportation measure. Findings suggest that an increase in risk of deportation is associated with a decrease in Medicaid use. The implications of this work have tremendous impacts for health service providers and policy makers interested in preventing and reducing health disparities in complex family structures.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 83-89 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | Children and Youth Services Review |
Volume | 57 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Oct 1 2016 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Health disparities
- Immigration enforcement
- Mixed-status families
- Program evaluation
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Education
- Developmental and Educational Psychology
- Sociology and Political Science