Migration, Health, and Inequalities: Critical Activist Research across Ecuadorean Borders

The author examines the impact of migration on health inequalities, focusing on the health and well-being of Ecuadorian migrants and their families migrating to the US, Spain, and back. She draws on ethnographic research conducted between 2015 and 2019 in Loja, Santo Domingo, and Guayaquil, as well as New York and New Jersey, and Barcelona, Spain, to describe migration-related health processes, particularly reflective mourning, trauma, stress, crises triggers, return shock, and resilience; the psycho-sociocultural mechanisms used by migrants to cope with the effects of outward and return migration; family deconstruction and reconstruction and the mechanisms used to address the changes migration causes in relationships; and how migrants interacted with border politics, including geographical boundaries between countries and national and international policies and politics regarding migration, residency, and citizenship, as well as racial and ethnic, gender and sexual, class, and other social structures and practices of inequality. Distributed in the US by Marston Book Services. Annotation ©2022 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)
Drawing from an activist research project spanning Loja, Santo Domingo, New York, New Jersey, and Barcelona, this book offers a feminist intersectional analysis of the impact of migration on health and well-being. It assesses how social inequalities and migration and health policies, in Ecuador and destination countries, shape the experiences of migrants. The author also explores how individual and collective action challenges health, geopolitical, gender, sexual, ethnoracial, and economic disparities, and empowers communities.This is a thorough analysis of interpersonal, institutional, and structural mechanisms of marginalization and resistance. It will inform policy and research for better responses to migration’s negative effects on health, and progress towards greater equality and social justice.