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Racial discrimination among Hispanics in the United States is on the rise along with stricter immigration laws, inadequate education for ESL classes, as well as they are prey to healthcare disparities. Data shows that many states in the United States are implementing tougher immigration laws for their individual states. Also, due to education cuts and kick-backs, English as a second language classes are becoming fewer in many school districts. Finally, health care disparities among Hispanics are on the rise due to lack of insurance, language barriers, and not enough medical resources to meet their needs.
Recent data illustrates that many states in the U. S. are passing tougher immigrant laws within their states. For example, as of July 1, 2011, the state of Georgia has passed an immigration law that states all immigrants must be e-verified in order to be employed within this state. This is scaring away much of the workforce in Georgia. According to a recent article in the Los Angeles Times newspaper, most of the illegal immigrant workforce in this state are being scared away and this is making farmers across Georgia very nervous. (LA Times, 2011)
At the height of the blackberry season in Georgia, many of the farms are short at least of 100 pickers. This is due to the strict immigration law passed by Georgia’s legislative. In the past, migrant workers (those employed for seasonal farm labor) have been able to work on the various farms throughout the Southeast. Now, due to e-verify, all immigrants must have adequate, government issued, documentation to prove that they are allowed to be employed within the United States. The Latino population has grown dramatically in the South over the past decade.
In the state of Georgia, the department of Agriculture released survey of farmers that stated that from one day to a year they are in need of more than 11,000 positions. (LA Times, 2011) Most Americans choose not to take these types of jobs due to the low pay, and in the past Hispanics (legal or illegal) have migrated to this type of work. Recent educational cuts and kick-backs have affected English as a second language classes. These classes are becoming fewer in many school districts throughout the United States.
The Census Bureau estimates that Hispanics will account for 30 percent of the United States population in 2050. From just 2001 thru 2008, the percentage of Hispanics in the U. S. public schools grew from 17% to 21%. In the state of Texas, Hispanics make up the majority of public school students. This fact still doesn’t grab the attention of policymakers and educators. There is no increase in the number of ESL (English as Secondary language) classes being implemented. Instead, in the U. S. nly 17 percent of Hispanic fourth-graders score proficient or better on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (a test given to samples of students throughout the U. S. each year) on the other hand, non-Hispanic white students performed at 42 percent of fourth-graders to score proficient or better. According to the Alliance for Excellent Education nationally, the U. S. high school graduation rate for Hispanics is just at 64 percent and only 7 percent of them become college students. (Time, 2011) This brings us to two major issues and they are the fact that the U.
S. Hispanic population is sky rocketing and the inadequate education of these students will put these students on a collision course for failure. It is clear that the United States needs to meet this challenge of meeting the educational needs of the Hispanic population. If this need is not met it will impact our politics, economy, and our society as a whole. Finally, health care disparities among Hispanics are on the rise due to lack of insurance, language barriers, and not enough medical resources to meet their needs.
The reasons for disparities in access to health care are many, but can include the following: ???Lack of insurance coverage. Without health insurance, patients are more likely to postpone medical care, more likely to go without needed medical care, and more likely to go without prescription medicines. Minority groups in the United States lack insurance coverage at higher rates than whites. ???Lack of a regular source of care. Without access to a regular source of care, patients have greater difficulty obtaining care, fewer doctor visits, and more difficulty obtaining prescription drugs.
Compared to whites, minority groups in the United States are less likely to have a doctor they go to on a regular basis and are more likely to use emergency rooms and clinics as their regular source of care. ???Lack of financial resources. Although the lack of financial resources is a barrier to health care access for many Americans, the impact on access appears to be greater for minority populations. ???Legal barriers. Access to medical care by low-income immigrant minorities can be hindered by legal barriers to public insurance programs.
For example, in the United States federal law bars states from providing Medicaid coverage to immigrants who have been in the country fewer than five years. ???Structural barriers. These barriers include poor transportation, an inability to schedule appointments quickly or during convenient hours, and excessive time spent in the waiting room, all of which affect a person’s ability and willingness to obtain needed care. ???The health care financing system. The Institute of Medicine of the United States says fragmentation of the U.
S. health care delivery and financing system is a barrier to accessing care. Racial and ethnic minorities are more likely to be enrolled in health insurance plans which place limits on covered services and offer a limited number of health care providers. ???Scarcity of providers. In inner cities, rural areas, and communities with high concentrations of minority populations, access to medical care can be limited due to the scarcity of primary care practitioners, specialists, and diagnostic facilities. [ ???Linguistic barriers.
Language differences restrict access to medical care for minorities in the United States who are not English-proficient. ???Health literacy. This is where patients have problems obtaining, processing, and understanding basic health information. For example, patients with a poor understanding of good health may not know when it is necessary to seek care for certain symptoms. While problems with health literacy are not limited to minority groups, the problem can be more pronounced in these groups than in whites due to socioeconomic and educational factors. Lack of diversity in the health care workforce. Major reasons for disparities in access to care are the cultural differences between predominantly white health care providers and minority patients. Only 4% of physicians in the United States are African American, and Hispanics represent just 5%, even though these percentages are much less than their groups’ proportion of the United States population. Racial discrimination among Hispanics in the United States is on the rise along with stricter immigration laws, inadequate education for ESL classes, as well as they are prey to healthcare disparities. Age. Age can also be a factor in health disparities for a number of reasons. As many older Americans exist on fixed incomes this may make paying for health care expenses difficult. Additionally, they may face other barriers such as impaired mobility or lack of transportation which make accessing health care services challenging for them physically. Also, they may not have the opportunity to access health information via the internet as less than 15% of Americans over the age of 65 have access to the internet.
This could put older individuals at a disadvantage in terms of accessing valuable information about their health and how to protect it. In conclusion, in order to reduce or eliminate rracial discrimination among Hispanics in the United States. Policymakers along with the key leaders of the 50 states of the United States need to be willing to work on lessening these strict immigration laws. Especially, these immigration laws when it comes to the agricultural areas of America.
Many states such as Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and other south eastern states are suffering in this trade as illegal immigrants are scared away because of e-verify laws in these states. Also, inadequate education for ESL classes can be reduced by allocating more government money towards this educational need in such highly populated Hispanic states such as Texas and California, etc. Finally, the U. S. needs to provide more health care assistance to Hispanics in this country. More health care assistance would eliminate healthcare disparities. References Fausset, Richard.
Fewer hands in the fields. June 18, 2011. Los Angeles Times. http://www. latimes. com/news/nationworld. Market, John. The Changing Face of Racial Discrimination: Hispanics as the Dominant Minority in the United States-A New Application of Power-Threat Theory. Critical Sociology. 2010. Mather, M. , & Pollard, K. (2009, May 12). U. S. Hispanic and Asian Population Growth Levels off – Population Reference Bureau. Home – Population Reference Bureau. Rotherham, Andrew J. The Education Crisis No One is Talking About. Thursday, May, 12, 2011. Time U. S. http://www. time. com