How Public Policy Shapes the Experiences of Immigrant Health: The RIGHTS Study

Research on Immigrant Health and State Policy (RIGHTS) Study researchers share findings from the study.

Led by a research team at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research (CHPR), the Research on Immigrant Health and State Policy (RIGHTS) Study was conducted to understand the experiences that Asian and Latinx Californians have as they seek health care, go to work and school, and engage in their communities, as well as how the state’s policies and programs shape these experiences and how such experiences influence people’s ability to seek the health care they need.

A follow-up survey to the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS), which is conducted in seven languages, authors of the study focused on 1,000 Asian and 1,000 Latino immigrants statewide to understand their experiences dealing with health care, social services, employment, education, and law enforcement and how those experiences impacted their health and access to health care.

An additional 60 individual interviews were conducted with Chinese and Mexican immigrants in Los Angeles and Fresno counties to compare experiences in a county where policies were more "inclusive" toward immigrants (for example, Los Angeles County offers health care to residents regardless of citizenship status) compared to a county whose policies were likely to exclude immigrants.

The study builds on knowledge regarding the impact of contextual and structural factors on both groups and how policy, legal status, and race and ethnicity may have impacts across the two groups on their access to health care.

The project team includes UCLA CHPR Associate Director Nadereh Pourat, PhD; Health Equity Program Director Kathryn Kietzman, PhD; Faculty Associates Maria-Elena Young, PhD, Michael Rodríguez, MD, and May Sudhinaraset, PhD; and dozens of undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students.

The RIGHTS Study was previous led by UCLA Center for Health Policy Research Associate Director Steven P. Wallace, PhD, who served as principal investigator of the project until his passing in 2021.

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The UCLA Center for Health Policy Research (CHPR) is one of the nation's leading health policy research centers and the premier source of health policy information for California. UCLA CHPR is home to the California Health Interview Survey, the largest state health survey in the nation, which interviews more than 20,000 Californians each year on a broad range of health topics.

Established in 1994, UCLA CHPR is based in the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and affiliated with the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs.

The UCLA Center for Health Policy Research improves the public's health by advancing health policy through research, public service, community partnership, and education.