Systems and subversion: A review of structural violence and im/migrant health

Abstract

Im/migrants in the United States are at heightened risk for a host of adverse behavioral, mental, and physical health disparities, which increase their vulnerability to disease and death. Our review of the literature shows how their health disparities are linked to structural factors that can limit their access to political, legal, and economic resources and manifest at different levels of social influence. However, scholars studying structural violence also show how im/migrants simultaneously are subject to and subvert structural violence. Efforts to address health inequities and learning how to dismantle structural violence must center im/migrant experiences and voices.

Keywords: Health equity; Im/migration; Resistance; Structural violence.