The Impact of Binational Barriers to Medical Care on the Care-Seeking Practices of Mexican Immigrants

Barriers to health care access faced by Mexican immigrants in the United States have been well-documented, including lack of insurance, fear of deportation, and language barriers. However, little is known about this population’s care-seeking experiences before migration. In this article, I use a life-course approach to explore binational isolation from health care and the ways in which early-life experiences pattern Mexicans’ care-seeking practices in the United States. This ethnographic research project took place in Tucson, Arizona, between 2013 and 2014 and used semistructured interviews with service providers and first-generation Mexican immigrants. The majority of participants faced significant barriers to medical care in Mexico, which resulted in low rates of care utilization and heavy reliance on lay modalities. Immigrants faced an even broader array of barriers to care in the United States, and their lack of prior health care access further discouraged care utilization and compromised their medical care experiences after migration.