Abstract

VEGA, Rosalynn. Medical mobility and intersectionality across the United States-Mexico border. Estud. front [online]. 2018, vol.19, e016.  Epub Nov 05, 2018. ISSN 2395-9134.  https://doi.org/10.21670/ref.1816016.

The objective of this article is to analyze how intersectional processes shape differing degrees of medical mobility (defined as facility of movement across national borders for the purposes of obtaining health care services or pharmaceuticals) across the U.S.-Mexico border for Spanish-speaking Hispanics and English-speaking Whites. Furthermore, this document explores how intersectional factors such as race, language, socioeconomic status, and citizenship shape medical mobility patterns. The research used ethnographic methods (in-depth interviews and participant observation) over a period of sixteen months (from May 2017 until September 2018) in Hidalgo County in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. The results of the research are an ethnographic understanding of the limits of citizenship for both documented and undocumented health care seekers in the border region, and the circumstances under which different border residents turn to bioconsumerism. The article’s conclusion makes a unique contribution to the literature by offering critical perspectives on relative privilege.

Keywords : intersectionality; racialization processes; medical mobility; citizenship.

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