Reveals the presence of an informal system of valuable support and care for marginalized migrants The United States' health care system not only consists of a formal safety net, but also an informal and disjointed network of organizations that offer basic care to millions of migrants. This "Third Net" provides free or low-cost health care for the undocumented, low-income, and uninsured migrants who are excluded from the formal system. This groundbreaking study sheds light on the existence of the Third Net and its implications for the overall inequalities in the US health care system. The Third Net is made up of diverse providers with varying levels of service, organizational culture, and mission. These providers operate in unconventional settings, such as mobile clinics on wheels; pop-up clinics in repurposed spaces; and unlicensed, makeshift clinics run by health activists. Despite their unassuming appearances, these clinics are vital resources for marginalized populations that often go unnoticed by the general public, revealing the shortcomings of our formal health care system. By examining these alternative health care spaces, the authors expose the inequities entrenched in the broader health care system and urge a reevaluation of it entirely in order to address these injustices.
Lisa Sun-Hee Park (Author) Lisa Sun-Hee Park is Professor and Chair of Asian American Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is the author of Entitled to Nothing: The Struggle for Immigrant Health Care in the Age of Welfare Reform as well as co-author of The Silicon Valley of Dreams: Environmental Injustice, Immigrant Workers, and the High-Tech Global Economy and The Slums of Aspen: Immigrants vs. the Environment in America's Eden. Erin Hoekstra (Author) Erin Hoekstra is an independent scholar. Her work has been published in Social Science & Medicine, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, City & Community, and Health Tomorrow: Interdisciplinarity and Internationality. Anthony M. Jimenez (Author) Anthony M. Jimenez is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the Rochester Institute of Technology. His work has appeared in Social Science & Medicine, City, the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, the Journal of Asthma, the Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, and Health Tomorrow: Interdisciplinarity and Internationality.
"The Third Net exposes the informally organized healthcare system that undergirds the formal health system, occupying a liminal space that allows it to serve the marginalized who fall outside the private insurance market. It offers a rich empirical site and an analytical lens through which to grasp the injustices of a formal health system that is designed to neglect poor and legally vulnerable immigrants. It is original, eye-opening, illuminating, accessible, and an essential read. Highly recommended!" * Cecilia Menjivar, co-author of Immigrant Families (Polity) *
