Sangaramoorthy in Barn Raiser: The Unseen Workers Behind Maryland’s Iconic Blue Crabs (Series, 4/6)

The fourth article of Thurka Sangaramoorthy’s six-part series in partnership with Barn Raiser was released today. Read an excerpt from When Language Becomes a Barrier to Health Care below:

“Adela had been waiting at the local clinic on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC), since 4:00 p.m. for her 4:15 appointment. By the time the provider finally called her name, it was evening, and the Spanish interpreters had gone home for the day. The doctor seemed surprised to see her still there when the clinic was preparing to close at 7:00 p.m.

“I told her that I had been waiting since 4:00 p.m.,” Adela, who emigrated from Mexico and worked cleaning homes, told me later. Without translation services, she struggled to understand the provider’s explanations about her chronic pain condition and the treatment options available to her.

Adela’s experience illustrates a pervasive but often invisible form of health care exclusion: the systematic under-resourcing of language interpretation services that leaves non-English speaking immigrants navigating complex medical systems without adequate support. My decade of research on Maryland’s Eastern Shore also reveals that language barriers intersect with racial discrimination in ways that create dramatically unequal hierarchies of care for different immigrant communities….”

This series — Rethinking Immigration and Health in Rural America — translates the concepts and theories first published in her 2023 book, Landscapes of Care, for a broader, public audience at a time when better understandings of immigrant realities are as urgent as ever.

Barn Raiser is an outlet which supports “trusted, independent journalism spotlighting critical issues and amplifying the diverse voices shaping the future of rural communities.”

Look out for new articles in this series over the coming weeks.