CIRA Talk: "In the Eye of the Storm: The Influence of Actual and Perceived Immigration Laws and Concerns on Latino Migrants' Health, Health Behaviors, and Use of Health-Related Services"

OVERVIEW

Immigration continues to be a political lightning rod in the United States. Latino/a/x/é (hereafter Latino) migrants live with uncertainty as a substantial and vocal portion of the population presses political leadership to “do something about” the immigration “problem”. Dr. Galletly will share findings from her studies on the influence of actual and perceived immigration laws on Latino migrant's health and health behaviors. She will report on a qualitative analysis of Latino migrants' perceptions of and reactions to the Public Charge Rule, and a quantitative analysis of data drawn from a large, cross sectional survey study (N=1750) on perceived law and immigration environment on the self-rated health status of Latino migrants. Dr. Galletly has a wealth of data on the influence of actual and perceived immigration laws and Latino migrants' use of health services and will offer opportunities for further study.

SPEAKER

Carol Galletly, JD, PhD, Professor, Medical College of Wisconsin

Dr. Galletly is an attorney and social scientist. She earned her JD and PhD at the Ohio State University. Currently, she is a Professor at the Medical College of Wisconsin’s Center for Community Health and Intervention Research within the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine. Dr. Galletly's research examines the influence of structural-level factors, especially laws and policies, on individual health behaviors and multi-level interventions to address these influences. Topics she has examined include criminal HIV exposure laws, legal strategies to address molecular HIV surveillance, and the influence of immigration-related laws and concerns on Latino migrants’ ability and willingness to utilize services for HIV testing, substance use disorders, and intimate partner violence. Currently she is studying the influence of immigration laws and concerns on Latino migrants’ willingness to engage in public health efforts to control infectious disease.

MODERATOR

Kaveh Khoshnood, PhD, Associate Professor of Epidemiology (Microbial Diseases), Yale School of Public Health

Dr. Khoshnood is an Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies at the Yale School of Public Health and executive committee member at Yale Council on Middle East Studies. He is the Founder of the Humanitarian Research Lab. Dr. Khoshnood is trained as an infectious disease epidemiologist and has more than three decades of domestic and international experience in HIV prevention research among people who use drugs and other at-risk populations. Dr. Khoshnood's research interests include: 1) epidemiology and prevention of HIV/AIDS, 2) research ethics and 3) humanitarian health.