The Third Net

The Hidden System of Migrant Health Care

Author: Lisa Sun-Hee Park, Erin Hoekstra and Anthony M. Jimenez Series: Health, Society, and Inequality

"Underneath the formal health care safety net system is an informal, threadbare, and disconnected infrastructure of free health services - a Third Net - that provides a patchwork of basic care to millions of undocumented and uninsured migrants across the country"--

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Summary

Description

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.

Critic Reviews

"In a nation where immigrants are considered undeserving of health care and there is no universal safety net even for citizens, what happens to impoverished, undocumented, and uninsured migrants? Based on novel ethnographic detective work, The Third Net exposes a shadow system that ties together a seemingly disorganized patchwork of organizations serving the migrants who fall through the cracks. An essential contribution to understanding the interconnected forces that maintain the unjust US structure of care." (Dorothy Roberts, author of Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction and the Meaning of Liberty) "The Third Net 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 Menjívar, co-author of Immigrant Families) "The Third Net takes us on a rigorous deep dive into the world of a disconnected array of clinics and non-profits providing medical care to millions of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. who are excluded from formal medical insurance. This book prompted my admiration for all those who make daily efforts to provide medical care for the excluded, and anger at the deficiencies in the health care system of the richest nation in the world. A sobering read." (Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo, co-author of South Central Dreams: Finding Home and Building Community in South L.A.)

About the Author

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.