Refugee & Immigrant
Listening Tour Session | Health Equity Roadmap Initiative
“It’s a relief to know that no matter your kids’ legal status, they can get Medi-Cal.”
Overview
- Community Partner: The Cambodian Family
- Originally founded to serve Cambodian immigrants, The Cambodian Family has expanded its scope to include immigrants from around the world.
- Location: Santa Ana, CA
- Date: January 26, 2024
- Population: Immigrant and refugee Medi-Cal members
Things We Heard
- Operational Barriers to Care
- Transportation
- Behavioral Health Access
- Dental
- Vision
- Language Support and Accessibility
Population of Focus
California is home to about 4 percent of the 240 million people worldwide who live outside their countries of origin. More than one in four Californians is an immigrant—amounting to more than 10 million people—compared with less than one in seven for the United States as a whole.
According to the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS), among low-income immigrants in California, avoidance of public programs in the past year for fear of harming their immigration status was reported by 13.7 percent. Compared with low-income immigrants who did not avoid public programs, those who did had more than twice the odds of delaying needed medical care and filling prescriptions. This is particularly troubling because the percentage of immigrant adults with serious psychological d istress (SPD) increased by 50% between 2015 and 2021, spurred in part by an increase in hate crimes during the COVID-19 pandemic.
| Continent | Births |
|---|---|
| Latin America | 5,105,869 |
| Asia | 4,243,771 |
| Europe | 665,148 |
| Africa | 204,269 |
| North America | 129,196 |
| Oceania | 79,732 |