IMMIGRANTS & AIDS.   Term Paper ID:26331 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Examines special problems of HIV positive immigrants, history, discrimination, Americans With Disabilities Act, role of social worker.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Examines special problems of HIV positive immigrants, history, discrimination, Americans With Disabilities Act, role of social worker. Paper Introduction: Despite recent breakthroughs in drug therapies to combat AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) and HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus, the pathogen that causes AIDS), a diagnosis of this disease remains one of the most frightening pieces of news that someone can receive. But it is not simply the medical news that is frightening: The arena of AIDS treatment abounds with human rights concerns that are especially troubling to people whose social standing is already marginalized, including gays, prostitutes, drug users and immigrants – who are often regarded as the most dangerous of this lot. Thus a social worker faced with a client newly diagnosed as HIV-positive must address not only the person’s medical concerns, but her very legitimate psychological, social and legal ones as well. The immigrant in this situation will wonder if she can be depor Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. As Bayer (in Reamer, 1991) notes, public health issues are some of themost complex facing a democracy. She can work with local AIDSsupport groups (of which nearly every community in the United States nowhas one), seeing that her client is served by this group and helping toensure that the group is able to address the needs of a multiculturalclientele (as most already are). Despite recent breakthroughs in drug therapies to combat AIDS(Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) and HIV (Human ImmunodeficiencyVirus, the pathogen that causes AIDS), a diagnosis of this disease remainsone of the most frightening pieces of news that someone can receive. Kraut, A. This normalization ofAIDS has removed from those suffering its effects much of the social stigmaearly AIDS patients had to bear, and so the client of this example is aslikely to meet compassion and understanding as she is to meet fear andprejudice - and perhaps even more so. Bayer's point that those suffering from an epidemic are treated invery different ways according to the politics of the time is an importantone to remember for this hypothetical case. Moreover,the federal government has considerable powers at its discretion in areasof public health, which means that native-born Americans may also besubject to restrictions that they do not like to safeguard the health ofpopulations. Silent travelers: Germs, genes, and the "immigrantmenace". Van der Vliet, V. 261). Even if she had been allowed to stay in the country she would nodoubt have faced significant discrimination. But itis not simply the medical news that is frightening: The arena of AIDStreatment abounds with human rights concerns that are especially troublingto people whose social standing is already marginalized, including gays,prostitutes, drug users and immigrants - who are often regarded as the mostdangerous of this lot. 154). The United States is a signatory to the Universal Declaration of HumanRights, a document that requires nations to respect the right of all peopleto privacy regarding both medical conditions and sexual practices, theright of all people to free movement within one's country (and this hasgenerally been interpreted to include free movement with an alien countryif one has entered it legally) and the right to pursue one's economic good,without any limitation being placed upon one for irrelevant grounds(Pierceand VanDeVeer, 198, p. 3 , emphasis in the original). (Moreover, because it is primarily through state and localgovernments that aid programs are administered, such aid programs must beadministered equally to people with disabilities.) The ADA (like other comparable federal legislation) offers itsprotections without regard to race, color, sex, age, religion or nationalorigin (Jasper, 1998, p. The ADA covers both state and localgovernments, so people throughout the country are granted equal protectionunder it. The immigrant inthis situation will wonder if she can be deported, if she will be able tocontinue to work with the disease, whether she will be able to get publicbenefits if she is unable to work, and whether her receiving publicassistance will increase her chance of being deported. Now that it hasbeen firmly established that the disease is only spread through the mostintimate forms of contact, widespread hysteria about it has lessened inlarge measure, reducing the calls for both quarantining and deportation. Finally, she can work with her local congressional member to helpclarify the ways in which ADA and other legislation that seeks to balancepublic health with private rights applies to immigrants. As AIDS activist Larry Kramer wrote in199 , "There is nothing in this whole AIDS mess that is NOT political" (inVan der Vliet, 1996, p. Wile AIDS is not nearly as contagious as TB, the fact that until nowit has always proven to be fatal make it at least as frightening. Thus a social worker faced with a client newly diagnosed as HIV-positive must address not only the person's medical concerns, but her verylegitimate psychological, social and legal ones as well. Immigrants have long been considered a pool of dangerous infectiousdiseases that might leap from their bodies to infect native-born Americans,and the history of immigration policy in this country is shot through withattempts to allow only healthy immigrants in. Because it is a relatively new law, the ADA has not been entirelyvetted through the courts and so precisely what protections it affords havenot been fully explored, but it specifically offers its mantle ofprotection to people with AIDS and HIV. The balancebetween civil rights and public health is a very delicate one. New York: BasicBooks. It prohibits discrimination in all aspects of employment andrequires employers to make reasonable accommodations for disabled workers;it prohibits discrimination against disabled persons seeking to use anypublic service; it requires all public accommodations (such as stores,restaurants and hotels) to be accessible to and to accommodate disabledpersons (Jasper, 1998, p. However, the picture is not quite so simple, for while somecharacterizations of immigrants as dirty disease-borne people are certainlynothing more than xenophobic or racist rantings, others are based incareful epidemiology. New York: ColumbiaUniversity. AIDS and ethics. Despite the grim picture painted by the history of both U.S. The Americans with Disabilities Act. Thus AIDSand HIV patients - whatever their citizenship status, must be concernedabout "invasions of their personal privacy and possible restrictions ontheir freedom of movement activity" and may worry that they will be deniedemployment, housing, insurance and health care (Pierce and VanDeVeer, 1988,p. 27). 155). However much improved the situation is for the immigrant with AIDS,the social worker can do even more to help. AIDS: Ethics and public policy.Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing. How the balance is struck in a particular historical moment is a function of the relationship among political forces, the dominance of ideological commitments, and the contour of the threats - both social and biological - posed by a particular epidemic (p. It would be easy to dismiss ideas that immigrants are somehownaturally dirty and disease-ridden simply as nativist and racistsentiments. Exeter: BowerdeanPublishing. For example, scientists are certain that in the 198 sand 199 s, immigrants to the United States are disproportionately infectedwith TB - a disease that was previously nearly eradicated it the UnitedStates (Kraut, 199 , p. TB is in many ways more of a health threatthan AIDS because it can be spread through casual contact, and so publichealth officials have responded with strong measures, including at timesforced quarantine of up to a year (Kraut, 199 , p. 1) and so most probably covers immigrants to thiscountry if their entry into the United States were legal to begin with. By doing all of these things, she can significantly help herclient manage to deal with all aspects of HIV infection. (1996). Unfortunately it is also one that is governed not by scientificknowledge and what is best for both infected individuals and theircommunities. (1998). References Jasper, M. (ed.) (1991). 261). 1). The politics of AIDS. However,of course, there is a difference, for while most Japanese-Americans weresteadfastly loyal, all people carrying TB are contagious. The ADA covers a number of areas of specific concern to the client inthis example. She can intercede with the client's employer and/or insurer to seethat the provisions of the ADA (and other anti-discrimination legislation)are carried out with diligence and help the client report any lapses inmeeting ADA requirement to the appropriate authorities. In the case of AIDS and HIV, these general provisions promised in aninternational concordance are given teeth - and rather sharp ones - by theAmericans with Disabilities Act, and the first order of business for thesocial worker who works with an HIV-positive client is to familiarize bothherself (or himself) and the client with the provisions of this act. (1994). Pierce, C. But much has changed in the last dozen years with the passage of theADA and with increasing knowledge about HIV/AIDS itself. An immigrant diagnosed with HIVin 1986 had a far greater chance of deportation than one so diagnosed in1999. Or rather it is never governed only by these concerns.Instead, public health policy is a highly politicized process, perhapsespecially in the case of AIDS. It might also besaid that there is nothing about immigration in the 199 s that is also notpoliticized - a fact that places the client in question at the center oftwo concurrent and synergistic maelstroms. Dobbs Ferry,NJ: Oceana Publications. She can urge thatimmigrants with AIDS not be treated any differently from any otherimmigrants, marshalling for her argument known medical and scientific factson how easily an HIV-infected person may be kept from spreading thedisease. Such measures as forcible quarantine sound on the one hand inhumaneand unworthy for a great democracy - something on the order of shipping offJapanese-Americans to desert relocation camps during World War II. She does have some significant protections. This does not mean that immigrants with HIV or AIDS may not be treatedin ways that they do not like; ADA also covers TB as a condition, andimmigrants with TB can be forcibly quarantined (as noted above). As the nineties end, AIDS is no longer in the publicmind a disease caught by gay men in bathhouses or dirty Haitian immigrantsor drug dealers sharing needles as they kill themselves slowly in alleys.Instead it has simply become a factor of life in the late 2 th century,like cancer and the depletion of the ozone layer. Reamer, F. (1988). treatmentof immigrants with contagious diseases and all people with AIDS, theimmigrant talking to a social worker about her fears can be offered someencouraging news. Also, as the public face of AIDS has shifted from being almostentirely gay to include children and mothers it has become a lessstigmatized disease. These two abstractions, liberty and communal welfare, are always in a state of tension in the realm of public health policy. & VanDeVeer, D. 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