By Susana Sánchez, Community Mobilization Intern
Given the anti-immigrant and anti-Latino sentiment in this country it was not surprising to me that the Health Care Reform excluded undocumented immigrants from insurance coverage, even going further to ban them from paying for it with their own money. However, I have been pondering about whether legal status is a valid argument to deny a human being, what I consider the inalienable right of good quality health care. My curiosity led me to learn about how my home country, Costa Rica, deals with undocumented immigrants as the country is well-known for its “universal” health care.
“Health Is Hard Here” or “Health for All”? The Politics of Blame, Gender, and Health Care for Undocumented Nicaraguan Migrants in Costa Rica,” a scholarly article by Kathryn Goldade explores the barriers of undocumented Nicaraguans to get health care in Costa Rica. Similar to the recent Health Care Reform law passed by Congress, since 2004 Costa Rica legally excludes undocumented immigrants from the national health system.
Undocumented Nicaraguans migrate to work on jobs that most Costa Ricans do not want. They do the most dangerous, backbreaking and low-paying jobs: they do domestic work, harvest sugarcane and coffee, and build houses. The common belief is that because most of them get paid through the informal sector, “they excessively use public benefits” their medical bills get paid by Costa Rican citizens. Similar to the ideas about undocumented workers in the U.S., Nicaraguans are believed by many to be a burden on the system, despite evidence to the contrary.
As a Costa Rican, I grew up hearing xenophobic jokes about Nicaraguans. I must admit that I even participated in them as well, and I never questioned why Nicaraguans were treated this way until I immigrated to the U.S, and began to experience anti-immigrant and anti-Latino sentiment mostly through the media. Immigrants face discrimination around the world.
Through the denial of health insurance, whether intentional or not, the law creates tiers of people: those who deserve basic rights and those who do not. Not having or having limited access to good quality healthcare politicizes bodies that get disfranchised and to certain extent even dehumanized.
It’s important to understand how immigrants are treated internationally, it gives context to our political situation. It also begs the question, what would happen to citizens from the United States if they went abroad? Everyone is an immigrant somewhere.
By Susana Sánchez, Community Mobilization Intern
Great blog post, Susana. The other issue that you did not mention is racism. Xenophobia exists everywhere – and since my family is from, and still lives in, Costa Rica, I understand where you’re coming from. However, Black immigrants everywhere – especially Latin America – face a much more insidious form of xenophobia. Those same people who make/participate in xenophobic jokes against Nicaraguans working in Costa Rica (por ejemplo) are also making/participating in racist and xenophobic jokes against Black Costa Ricans. Black Latin American women — “Afro-Latinas,” like myself — face multiple forms of discrimination. And, while we are able to mitigate racism here and abroad by speaking Spanish and adopting Latin American culture, so that we’re more accepted, many of us still deal with anti-immigrant and anti-Latino sentiments from The Man, anti-Black sentiments from our “own” people, and anti-woman sentiments from Machista/patriarchal culture. I could go on & on about the “jokes” that white America and white Latinos make about Black people’s hair texture, surnames, skin color, and nose width, as well as about the ways in which Afro-Latinas’ bodies are racially sexualized, raped, and stigmatized….but that would be another blog post.
You are right Samantha. I am aware of racism and xenophobia against black Costa Ricans. In my opinion the fact that most black people in Costa Rica live in the most undeserved area, Limón, proves the racism to which they have to endure. As you said, that would be another different topic because the racism against black Costa Ricans is a bit different from what immigrants experience.
Unlike Nicaraguans black Costa Ricans are considered citizens. Thus, the racism is not based on their citizenship status but other excuses to exclude them.
However, I can tell you from my experience that the xenophobia and racism against immigrant Nicaraguans is tolerated and has become so ingrained that most people do not even realize it. It is present in the media, in everyone’s daily lives. For instance people say to each other “vos sos Nica” meaning to offend the other person, and so on.
I became interested in writing about this topic because I am interested in seeing how racism is ‘justified’ when a person lacks citizenship status such is the case of undocumented immigrants. I also became interested in this topic because the same excuses that U.S. citizens use to deny basic rights to undocumented immigrants here are the same excuses that Costa Ricans use: “they drain our public system” when in reality they actually do not have equal access to services.
I probably would come back to Costa Rica where I would be able to study more in depth the situation for black women in Costa Rica. By the way, Epsy Campbell a politician has written about discrimination against blacks in Costa Rica. In the U.S. I have become aware of the racism that indigenous, blacks, and Nicaraguans immigrants experience in Costa Rica. I guess I enjoyed “white-privilege” in my country and never noticed because it did not affect me until I came to the U.S.
I do know of Epsy. We’ve been in communication. When I was in Costa Rica in June 2009, I attended an Afro-Costarricense event in San Jose that was so transformative to me. And, I appreciate you acknowledging your white privilege. It does suck to go elsewhere and receive a reality check. Growing up in Brooklyn, NY, I never noticed that I was a “minority” until I went to college in Maryland and experienced overt (rather than institutionalized) racism for the first time. My family never talked about Negritude. We were just “Hispanics.” It’s not until my older years, where I see just how race & immigration plays out in Latin America. In the 1800s, when Black people first migrated to Costa Rica from the Caribbean to work, they experienced tons of racism and expectations to adopt Spanish as their new language in order to become full citizens. A century has passed since then, but the ramifications of race in Costa Rica (and elsewhere) still linger. Perhaps it will take a century for Nicaraguans to be accepted. Hopefully, people in the coming generations will be more accepting of immigrants. Like you wrote in your blog post, “Everyone is an immigrant somewhere.”
Hey guys. Great comments, I must agree with all. We all make fun of “Nicas”. However, this does not address bigger issues.
Now that you have taste the bitterness of being labeled “wetback” and many other xenophobia against Latinos, what do you believe is the humane solution for the immigration issues faced, not here in the US, but in your own countries?
How can we, as Costa Ricans and Latinos, beg this country for a reform and in our countries commit to the same principles as Americans do here? Should we not someday return home and alleviate those who stand in our same shoes?
Obama promised “Change” for how Americans will see and treat immigrants, by giving us a reform and returning some dignity to us, immigrants. Yet, we as Costa Ricans are not willing to change, maintaining that same ignorant mentality some “white folks” keep towards us.
Pura Vida
This is an extremely complex issue, obviously. But I respect anyone who is engaged in the struggle for freedom for all humans and equal rights.
The OP ends with this, “It also begs the question, what would happen to citizens from the United States if they went abroad?” Since Samantha has invited me into this forum, I will just say that I have lived in 4 different countries outside of the U.S., but have done so legally, so I cannot put myself in the shoes of someone who is undocumented. Surprise, surprise, I have never felt that I was denied any rights given by said countries. But I am white. So maybe that just sews everything up in a neat little package. I don’t know.
What I learned in a grad school course on Inter-Cultural Communication is that Xenophobia is, unfortunately, a defense mechanism which aides the brain in putting people and things into categories. The example they used was that we should imagine a prehistoric tribe who sees a member of another tribe (who looks different or behaves differently) coming over the hill. The natural insitinct is not to welcome the newcomer with open arms, but rather to gather one’s own tribe close, and get ready for battle.
This class did not turn me into a racist, thankfully. My first husband was half Black, half Latino, and my current husband is Swiss-born Croatian (and the Croats are the “Nicas” of Switzerland). I taught ESL for 16 years so have spent my entire adulthood in a melting-pot of cultures, and sometimes can’t even relate to people from my own culture.
I just wanted to point out the (albeit unfortunate) psychological aspect of xenophobia. As humans, we see, we categorize, we like and we dislike. Can we rise above this as a species? I’m not sure. Should the U.S. take on some major immigration reform which would allow those who wish to earn money doing our dirty work the ability to do so legally (as with the work programs of the earlier part of the 20th century)? Hell, yes. Should someone in any country be able to pay for health insurance and receive health care? Of course.
I worked for years with undocumented Latinos who were trying to earn their G.E.D.s or who were in ESL classes at community college. I was thrilled when I got to meet Cesar Chavez. But when I lived in the “Barrio” in Santa Barbara, and came home to find a Mexican man peeing on my front lawn one day, I came unglued. I see, I categorize. Things changed for me that day. My advocacy took a step back. And there were other examples where the visuals did damage to my core beliefs. Xenophobia and prejudice rear their ugly heads, even for a lifelong liberal like myself. Psychology is powerful stuff. That’s all I’m saying.