Beyond Legal Status: Rethinking Immigration and Health in Rural America (Series, Part 1 of 6 with Barn Raiser)

Citation: Sangaramoorthy, Thurka. “Beyond Legal Status: Rethinking Immigration and Health in Rural America.” Barn Raiser (blog), July 7, 2025. https://barnraisingmedia.com/rethinking-immigration-health-rural-america/.

Excerpt: “When we talk about immigration in America, the conversation almost inevitably centers on one question: Are they here legally or illegally? This binary framework shapes everything from policy debates to health care delivery, often reducing complex human experiences to a simple legal category.

My ethnographic research over 10 years, from 2013-2023, on Maryland’s Eastern Shore reveals how this legal/illegal binary is not only inadequate but actively harmful to understanding the realities of immigrant life in rural America, particularly when it comes to health care access and community belonging.”