Change in birth outcomes among infants born to Latina mothers after a major immigration raid.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Growing evidence indicates that immigration policy and enforcement adversely affect the well-being of Latino immigrants, but fewer studies examine 'spillover effects' on USA-born Latinos. Immigration enforcement is often diffuse, covert and difficult to measure. By contrast, the federal immigration raid in Postville, Iowa, in 2008 was, at the time, the largest single-site federal immigration raid in US history.

Methods

We employed a quasi-experimental design, examining ethnicity-specific patterns in birth outcomes before and after the Postville raid. We analysed Iowa birth-certificate data to compare risk of term and preterm low birthweight (LBW), by ethnicity and nativity, in the 37 weeks following the raid to the same 37-week period the previous year ( n  =   52

SUBMITTER: Novak NL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5837605 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature