Alth, mental health, substance use, shelter, and legal services. They broker

Alth, L 663536 chemical information mental health, substance use, shelter, and legal services. They broker relations between Latino day laborers and neighbors, local police, employers, and city services. The degree to which these agencies mitigate day laborers’ distress is also a focus of the ongoing study.NIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author ManuscriptThe social construction of desesperacionThe challenges and contentions Latino day laborers deal with occur concurrently at multiple levels of experience that are frequently denied or minimized by the day laborers themselves. Indeed the cumulative consequence of experiencing discrimination on multiple levels has the potential of driving day laborers to despair (Huffman et al 2012; Larchanche 2012). Latino day laborers in San Francisco and Berkeley frequently use the term desesperaci (desperation) to refer to a variety of angst-ridden feelings and situations such as not having worked in weeks, not having seen one’s family, or being without money to send home or3This article is based on data derived from a four year NIH/NIAAA R01 study grant, Structural-Environmental Factors, Alcohol, and HIV Risk in Latino Migrant Laborers (5R01AA017592-02), under the direction of the principal investigator, Dr. Kurt Organista, University of California, Berkeley. City Soc (Wash). Author manuscript; available in PMC 2015 April 01.Quesada et al.Pagesupport oneself (Organista et al. 2012, 2006). Whether desesperaci is a mix of depression and anxiety, a culture bound syndrome (Bayles and Katerndahl 2009), an idiom of culturally specific distress, indeed embodied distress (Finkler 1989), it is nonetheless a common refrain for expressing the discord in one’s life, how one feels, and even how one falls into vices such as problem drinking, sexual risk taking, arguments, and fights, etc. Feelings of desperation among undocumented Latino day laborers are irrevocably linked to being an immigrant and experiencing discrimination, conjoining internalized unease with externalized stressors. There is no question that the experience of being unfairly treated is associated with poor mental health, especially for people of color (Finch, Kolody, and Vega 2000). purchase Deslorelin Although there is some speculation that the association between discrimination and mental health for immigrants may be stronger for those who have lived in the U.S. longer than for more recent arrivals (Gee et al. 2006: 1824); the added dimension of being undocumented is a significant stressor (Finch and Vega 2003), although its singular contribution to mental health calls for further study (Sullivan and Rehm 2005). Some researchers who examine the effect of legal status on mental health use the term “acculturative stress” (Arbona, Olvera, Rodriguez, Hagan, Linares, and Wiesner 2010; Finch and Vega 2003), and refer to a host of stressors: separation from family and friends, learning a new language and cultural system, difficulties related to undesirable and unstable living and working conditions, themes of failure in one’s country of origin, dangerous border crossings, limited resources, restricted mobility, stigma/blame, marginalization/isolation, fear and fear-based behavior, stress and depression (Sullivan and Rehm 2005: 249; Finch and Vega 2003). The means to alleviate these stressors are undermined by the 1998 Health Care Reform Act and the 2010 Health Care Reform Act which render the undocumented ineligible for health care except for emergency care (Ruiz-Beltran an.Alth, mental health, substance use, shelter, and legal services. They broker relations between Latino day laborers and neighbors, local police, employers, and city services. The degree to which these agencies mitigate day laborers’ distress is also a focus of the ongoing study.NIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author ManuscriptThe social construction of desesperacionThe challenges and contentions Latino day laborers deal with occur concurrently at multiple levels of experience that are frequently denied or minimized by the day laborers themselves. Indeed the cumulative consequence of experiencing discrimination on multiple levels has the potential of driving day laborers to despair (Huffman et al 2012; Larchanche 2012). Latino day laborers in San Francisco and Berkeley frequently use the term desesperaci (desperation) to refer to a variety of angst-ridden feelings and situations such as not having worked in weeks, not having seen one’s family, or being without money to send home or3This article is based on data derived from a four year NIH/NIAAA R01 study grant, Structural-Environmental Factors, Alcohol, and HIV Risk in Latino Migrant Laborers (5R01AA017592-02), under the direction of the principal investigator, Dr. Kurt Organista, University of California, Berkeley. City Soc (Wash). Author manuscript; available in PMC 2015 April 01.Quesada et al.Pagesupport oneself (Organista et al. 2012, 2006). Whether desesperaci is a mix of depression and anxiety, a culture bound syndrome (Bayles and Katerndahl 2009), an idiom of culturally specific distress, indeed embodied distress (Finkler 1989), it is nonetheless a common refrain for expressing the discord in one’s life, how one feels, and even how one falls into vices such as problem drinking, sexual risk taking, arguments, and fights, etc. Feelings of desperation among undocumented Latino day laborers are irrevocably linked to being an immigrant and experiencing discrimination, conjoining internalized unease with externalized stressors. There is no question that the experience of being unfairly treated is associated with poor mental health, especially for people of color (Finch, Kolody, and Vega 2000). Although there is some speculation that the association between discrimination and mental health for immigrants may be stronger for those who have lived in the U.S. longer than for more recent arrivals (Gee et al. 2006: 1824); the added dimension of being undocumented is a significant stressor (Finch and Vega 2003), although its singular contribution to mental health calls for further study (Sullivan and Rehm 2005). Some researchers who examine the effect of legal status on mental health use the term “acculturative stress” (Arbona, Olvera, Rodriguez, Hagan, Linares, and Wiesner 2010; Finch and Vega 2003), and refer to a host of stressors: separation from family and friends, learning a new language and cultural system, difficulties related to undesirable and unstable living and working conditions, themes of failure in one’s country of origin, dangerous border crossings, limited resources, restricted mobility, stigma/blame, marginalization/isolation, fear and fear-based behavior, stress and depression (Sullivan and Rehm 2005: 249; Finch and Vega 2003). The means to alleviate these stressors are undermined by the 1998 Health Care Reform Act and the 2010 Health Care Reform Act which render the undocumented ineligible for health care except for emergency care (Ruiz-Beltran an.