Social science & medicine
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Social science & medicine · Mar 2012
ReviewBeyond welfare reform: reframing undocumented immigrants' entitlement to health care in the United States, a critical review.
This article addresses the main scholarly frames that supported the deservingness of unauthorized immigrants to health benefits in the United States (U. S.) following the passage of the Personal Responsibility Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), known as the Welfare Reform bill, in 1996. Based on a critical literature review, conducted between January 1997 and March 2011, this article begins with an analysis of the public health rhetorics that endorsed immigrants' inclusion into the U. ⋯ First, the "chilling effect," defined as the voluntary withdrawal from health benefits, is examined in light of unauthorized immigrants' internalized feelings of undeservingness. Second, an "injustice" narrative highlights both the contributions and the limitations of a social justice paradigm, which advocated for the restoration of government benefits to elderly immigrants and refugees after the passage of PRWORA. By analyzing the contradictions among all these diverse frames, this paper finally reflects on the conceptual challenges faced by medical anthropology, and the social sciences at large, in advancing health equity and human rights paradigms.