Understanding the Role of Social Factors in Farmworker Housing and Health

Publication Date

2015

Description

Differences in social advantage significantly influence health conditions and life expectancy within any population. Such factors reproduce historic class, race, and ethnic disparities in community success. Few populations in the United States face more social and economic disadvantage than farmworkers, and farmworker housing has significant potential to ameliorate or amplify the health impact of those disadvantages. Drawing on the limited direct research on farmworkers, and on additional research about poor, isolated, and immigrant societies, we propose four mechanisms through which housing can be expected to affect farmworker health: quality of social capital within farmworker communities, stress effects of poor housing situations, effects of housing on social support for healthy behaviors, and interactions among these factors, especially effects on children that can last for generations. Policy and planning definitions of "adequate" farmworker housing should take a more holistic view of housing needs to support specific social and community benefits in design decisions.

The Author(s) 2015.

Journal

New Solutions : a Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy

Volume

25

Issue

3

First Page

313

Last Page

333

Department

Environmental Studies

Second Department

Sociology & Anthropology

DOI

10.1177/1048291115601020

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