About the talk:

The expansion of the 2019 Public Charge rule poses a continuous threat to the health of immigrants, leading to avoidance of safety-net programs by them and their families due to concerns over immigration. While ecological studies have used the “chilling effect” hypothesis to explain changes in safety-net program enrollment, there has been little examination of Asian and Latinx individuals’ self-reported experiences following the rule’s expansion. We aim 1) to examine Asian and Latinx individuals’ avoidance of needed social assistance programs due to immigration-related concerns across their legal status (U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident (LPR), or undocumented) and household composition (mixed status, all-noncitizen, and all-citizen households), 2) to determine whether this relationship differs for Latinx and Asian individuals, and 3) to explore the predictors of a positive information effect after learning that in 2021 Biden reversed Trump’s expansion of the 2019 Public Charge rule. We use data collected in September 2021 (after the rule’s reversal) from Latinx and Asian individuals close to immigrants. We hypothesize that individuals with more precarious legal status, such as undocumented or those under the DACA program, living in mixed-status households and all-noncitizen households, would be more likely to report that they or a family member forewent needed assistance due to immigration concerns. Further, we do not expect differences across ethnic groups.

About the speaker:

Haro-Ramos recently joined UCI’s Health, Society, & Behavior in the Program of Public Health after receiving her Ph.D. from UC Berkeley earlier this year. Haro-Ramos’s research focuses on health and social inequities across the life course among racialized communities in the U.S., focusing on the intersection between race, ethnicity, and citizenship status. Learn more by visiting her website or reading about her research on illegality, work, and health.