IMMIGRANT WOMEN OF COLOR
Immigrant Women of Color experience the effects of dehumanizing, sexist and xenophobic immigration/public policies and rhetoric on multiple levels. The effects of such denigrating laws lead to the limiting of their reproductive rights, their access to protective services, and their access to healthcare. Through advocating for better public and immigration policies and offering better access to healthcare, legal protection, and “English as a Second Language” (ESL) classes to Immigrant Women of Color, we can begin to allow these populations to thrive. We believe that a single action can make a difference in the community, and that collective action can greatly impact the world.
PROBLEMS AFFECTING IMMIGRANT WOC
Since the election of Donald Trump in 2016, immigration has been at the forefront of public debates. The Trump administration has repeatedly stoked the fears of American citizens with various threats of immigrants “infesting” the US, terrorists coming into the US as asylum seekers, and hateful rhetoric targeting non-white immigrants. Immigrants in the US are from various countries and backgrounds. They represent 40 million people in the US of which 21 million are women. Although immigrants are projected to be the driving force of the rising racial diversity of the US in the coming years, immigrants’ interests and problems are very often paid little attention to in public policy debates. Furthermore, immigrant women experience various problems that hinder their quality of life such as “reproductive health issues, domestic violence, poor job quality within traditionally female occupations, and difficulty accessing supportive services” (Hess). When these women happen to be women of color and/or undocumented, the severity of these issues are aggravated.
HEALTH CARE ACCESS
Access to reproductive healthcare has been one of the ways the Trump administration has negatively impacted immigrant women of color. Federal and state policies continually stop immigrant women from having affordable health care coverage. Researchers at the Guttmacher Institute found that experiences of immigrant women were “varying not only by race and ethnicity, but also by country of origin”; the differences could be attributed to “a mix of structural, cultural, economic and social factors” (Tapales). The researchers found that 33% of immigrant women, varying in age from 15 to 44, did not have health insurance compared to 16% of American women. 28% of immigrant women were also at a higher risk of paying out of pocket than American women, 16% of whom payed out of pocket. Race was a significant factor as “differences in insurance coverage and payment method between immigrant and U.S.-born women were particularly pronounced among Hispanic women” (Tapales). The American healthcare system leaves much to be desired, as many American citizens themselves having trouble navigating its shallow waters. It systematically disadvantages immigrant women of color through the lack of monetary medical aid available to them, forcing them to bear the oftentime extremely expensive cost of healthcare, the language barrier present when these women attempt to care for themselves, and the fact that even if they have insurance, reproductive healthcare is not always covered. The constant attacks on the reproductive health of immigrant WOC doesn't stop there, it follows them wherever they are.
UNITED STATES IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT (ICE)
ICE, a law enforcement agency that is tasked with removing undocumented immigrants and investigating cases of criminal/terrorist activities relating to non-U.S. citizens, is based on anti-immigrant sentiments but in the 15 years since its foundation, it has become “particularly focused on women of color and, even more specifically, intertwined with their reproductive capacity” (Hartry). As Allison S. Hartry states “national identity is often expressed in terms of gender and sexuality-as well as race and ethnicity-because a unified national identity depends on being able to create, in the words of Benedict Anderson, "imagined communities" against which outsiders can be defined”. The fact that the American national body is constructed by the human body, the amount of people born in this country, makes birthright citizenship a “weapon” to destroy the national identity of the U.S., one that is white, wealthy, and English-speaking. Getting rid of birthright citizenship, therefore effectively limiting the amount of “outsiders” in American society allows for a homogenous society. As immigrants of color are seen as outsiders by a number of political pundits, “immigrant women's ability to reproduce these outsiders is particularly threatening when the national body is made up of and defined by the human body. The attack on "anchor babies" and birthright citizenship is a direct attempt to prescribe immigrant women's reproductive decisions regarding pregnancy and childbirth in response to the anxieties involved in creating a particular American identity” (Hartry).
The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any.
Alice Walker
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