Question

Whether or not language barriers and unemployment are issues for Hispanics & Mexicans in other countries, and if so, how it is handled by differing groups? Please include references.

Answer 1

• The influx of Hispanics into the Midwest and South is creating a language barrier in many communities, forcing changes in how governments provide services and the way businesses attract workers and customers.In Georgia, advocates say some Latino immigrants get substandard health care because they cannot speak English well and few hospitals have Spanish translators.
• Many manufacturing and retail employers say they would hire more Hispanic immigrants but cannot adequately train or relay job safety requirements to non-English speakers.
• For Hispanics in the United States, the educational experience is one of accumulated disadvantage. For Hispanics, initial disadvantages often stem from parents' immigrant and socioeconomic status and their lack of knowledge about the U.S. education system.
• Specific features of the Hispanic population that affect their access to health care include degree of acculturation, language, and immigration status.
• These features of the Hispanic population have both direct effects on reducing access to health care and indirect effects through their association with lower rates of health insurance coverage. The jobs available to recent and undocumented immigrants who lack proficiency in English are unlikely to provide health insurance as a benefit of employment. Furthermore, under recent legislation, recent immigrants and noncitizens may receive fewer benefits than earlier immigrants and citizens from public health insurance programs.
• Limited proficiency in English affects Hispanics' ability to seek and obtain health care and reduces access to health information in the media.
  
• Studies have found that language barriers between providers and patients may result in excessive ordering of medical tests, lack of understanding of medication side effects and provider instructions, decreased use of primary care, increased use of the emergency department, and inadequate follow-up.
• The adversities faced by Latino individuals and their families in the U.S. negatively impact educational outcomes as well as their mental and physical health. These adversities are often related to immigration status and acculturation and include diffi culties with immigration, language barriers, and discrimination.
• Language barriers can affect access to education, communication with children’s school personnel, range of job opportunities or job advancement possibilities, and access to healthcare services.
• Language barriers experienced by Mexicans emphasized the limitation placed on individuals once they arrive in the U.S. if he/she is not fl uent in English. These barriers can be particularly important in educational settings and society at large, where, given dwindling resources for public education and initiatives against bilingual education, children or adults can be limited in their achievement possibilities, thus curtailing further opportunities and social mobility.
• Among Hispanics in 2012, the economy and jobs (54%) ranked about as high as education (55%) as an issue “extremely important” to them personally.The unemployment rate for Hispanics has steadily fallen since then (8.9% in 2013).
• Unlike past immigrant groups, Mexicans and other Hispanics have not assimilated into mainstream U.S. culture, forming instead their own political and linguistic enclaves.
• Mexican Americans and other Hispanics acquire competence in English, they also appear to deviate from the usual pattern by maintaining their competence in Spanish.
• Wells KB, Golding JM, Hough RL, Burnam MA, Karno M. Acculturation and the probability of use of health services by Mexican Americans. Health Services Research. 1989;24(2):237–257.
• Morales LS, Cunningham WE, Brown JA, Liu H, Hays RD. Are Latinos less satisfied with communication by health care providers? Journal of General Internal Medicine. 1999;14:409–417.
• Partida, Y. (2007). Addressing Language Barriers: Building Response Capacity for a Changing Nation; Hablamos Juntos II - Language Policy and Practice in Healthcare. Society of General Internal Medicine, 22, 347-349.