Latinos and the Accessibility to Social Services

Abstract

Since the 1980’s, immigration from Latin America into the U.S. has been scrutinized in various news outlets; resulting in policies and laws that have started to reflect an anti-immigrant rhetoric that ultimately casts a negative connotation onto the Latino populations residing within the U.S. (Vasquez, 2011). To appease the general public, policies that criminalized Latino immigrants soon emerged however the impact would be in the way that was intended. The first part of the study investigates how the anti-immigration laws did not yield less criminals, but rather removed necessary funding for services that could have aided Latinos (Kouyoumdjian, Zamboanga, & Hansen, 2006). While the second portion of the study focuses on interviews with five diverse individuals, all stemming from various fields that have interacted with the Latino population. All five of these individuals currently engage in occupations that collaborate directly with the Latino community, such as housing, immigration, financial literacy, and citizenship clinics. While many agreed that services are relatively present, they also deemed them inaccessible to the vast majority of the population that needs them the most. This study reviews the impact of anti-immigration policies on social services, and examines the real-world experiences of the individuals working within them.