56 percent of those who are likely to be undocumented immigrants say they are very worried or somewhat worried that if they try to seek help.
The cultural significance represented within the affairs of the events that followed Hurricane Harvey helped to socially and economically construct the racial and minority deficits suffered by those who have suffered immigration and well as racial discrimination. This racial discrimination is not only apparent in the structural facets of racism employed towards the Latinx and Mexican minority communities, but also within the lack of resources and helps presented to those communities. A fluid theme within Hurricane Harvey is its ability to facilitate unconscious and conscious forms of structural racism in the sense that racialized institutions founded within our government lay blame towards immigrants for the United States socioeconomic status and thus according to the article it states, “According to the study, 56 percent of those who are likely to be undocumented immigrants say they are very worried or somewhat worried that if they try to seek help, they will draw attention to their own status or that of a family member” (Aponte 2018). In other words, these immigrants live in fear and the occurrence of a natural disaster worsens that inherent fear, feeding towards the stigmas and negatively portrayed perceptions “aliens” take on.
This study addresses how several private research corporations conducted studies on the Latino minority community in particular to examine the “unique challenges” they faced in the face of a natural disaster. According to the study, “Approximately a quarter of those surveyed identified themselves as immigrants, and seven in ten of those immigrants identified as Hispanic. Meanwhile, about one in five immigrants who are legal residents worry about drawing attention to someone else’s status. About 40 percent of Texas’ overall population is Latino or Hispanic, according to the 2010 Census” (Aponte 2018). These demographics prove to the public how necessary it is for these communities to receive care amidst the legal and political turmoil. Natural disasters much like Hurricane Harvey question the public’s safety over legal rights, but in a country that was built on diversity, why turn a blind eye to those who help create a stable economy and labor force? Many “aliens” take up much of the middle and lower working classes, but when minority communities are faced with financial strain and home loss, they “experience those issues at a larger scale”(Aponte 2018). This disproportionate marginality between the resources offered to majority races and communities compared to minority races and communities are not offered. Minority communities and immigrants are offered FEMA, which only allows for short-term, no cash compensation. FEMA is subject to non-U.S. citizens and the study further implicates a mental health concern for many immigrant families who lack an “interpersonal support network”(Aponte 2018) which shouldn’t be an option, but a necessity for minority communities as they are already at a disadvantage.
_________________________________________________Works Cited:
Aponte, Claudia Irizarry. “Study: More Than Half of Undocumented Immigrants Impacted by Hurricane Harvey Didn't Seek Help Out of Fear for Status.” Latino USA, 26 Mar. 2018, www.latinousa.org/2018/03/26/hurricaneharveystudy/. Wu, Bryan, et al. “Hurricane Harvey: The Experiencesof Immigrants Living in the TexasGulf Coast .” Latinousa.org, Kaiser Family Foundation, Mar. 2018, www.latinousa.org/2018/03/26/hurricaneharveystudy/.