Environmental Justice and Migrant Workers

Background

Environmental justice exists when all people receive fair treatment and participate meaningfully in the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental policy. The inequitable distribution of both the benefits and the hazards generated by manufacturing, mining, agriculture, and other forms of work lies at the heart of the environmental justice movement. Public health researchers have demonstrated the disparate exposures to environmental pollution as a major contributing factor in the production of health inequities. Disparities in health coverage, access, and quality of care are influenced in large part by citizenship status and language.

Methods

A meta-analysis was conducted. Articles from 1995-2009 with key phrases "environmental injustice" and "migrant worker" were systematically recovered from Highwire, Pubmed, and Medline and the effects of environmental injustice on migrant workers were studied thoroughly.

Results

There is an inequitable distribution of environmental hazards in communities. Numerous statistical studies have measured higher concentrations of pollution hazards (landfills and manufacturers releasing toxic chemicals) in minority communities, which were concluded as injustice and racism. One study shows that Foreign-born Hispanic workers experienced a fatal occupational injury rate of 6.1 per 100,000 from 1996 through 2000, compared with rates For U.S-born Hispanic workers (4.5/100,000) and all U.S. workers (4.6/100,000) that were one-third less. Of the foreign-born Hispanic workers killed on the job, 69% were born in Mexico.

Conclusion

The recognition of the inter-relationship between work, home, community, and society, and the importance of justice in each of these spheres, is needed to develop, evaluate, and sustain effective interventions.