Borders of Care

This week’s review argues that the immigration and health care systems in the United States create obstacles for immigrants seeking care and neglect their medical wellbeing.

Posted on July 28, 2025 in Reviews of the Month

Borders of Care: Immigrants, Migrants, and the Fight for Health Care in the United States

Hoffman, Beatrix. Chicago, 2025
296p bibl index, 9780226820842 $115.00, 9780226820866 $25.00, 9780226820859

Hoffman (history, Northern Illinois Univ.) presents a fascinating analysis of the American immigration and health care systems, asserting that both are broken and fail to meet immigrant needs for health care access or the needs of the US economy for a steady supply of immigrant labor. Noting the significant portion of immigrants within the US population, she also describes their disproportionately higher rates of various illnesses and limited access to health care and safe environments, which perpetuate and exacerbate their challenges. Such challenges are then employed by lawmakers to justify exclusionary immigration practices. While acknowledging occasional attempts to improve immigrant health care access, Hoffman points out that cumbersome eligibility and application requirements limit immigrant access. She also notes the ease with which employers evade responsibility for attending to immigrant health care needs. Later chapters describe the rise of the immigrant labor and immigrant rights movements. Hoffman asserts that the COVID pandemic has increased US economic reliance on immigrant labor while also having a disproportionately negative impact on the immigrant population. This book should be required reading for upper-division and graduate health professions and public policy students.

Summing Up: Essential. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals.
Reviewer: T. D. DeLapp, emerita, University of Alaska Anchorage
Subject: Science & Technology – Health Sciences
Choice Issue: Jul 2025

---

Enjoy this week’s review? Check out more reviews of related titles:

• The Outbreak Atlas
• Uncharted: How Scientists Navigate Their Own Health, Research, and Experiences of Bias
• Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation
• High and Rising Mortality Rates Among Working-Age Adults

Related Posts