Sangaramoorthy in Barn Raiser: Networks of Care: How Rural Immigrants Build Community (Series, 5/6)

The fifth article of Thurka Sangaramoorthy’s six-part series in partnership with Barn Raiser was released today. Read an excerpt from Networks of Care: How Rural Immigrants Build Community below:

“In Haitian Kreyòl, there’s a saying: Lè w pa gen manman, ou tete grann—“If you can’t get breast milk from mom, you get it from grandma.” Darline, a Haitian immigrant on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, explained its meaning to me: “When we don’t have a solution to a problem, we must make do with what is available.”

This proverb captures something essential about how immigrant communities survive in rural America. In places where formal services are scarce and bureaucratic barriers are high, people get by through helping each other—passing along information, sharing resources, and building relationships that extend far beyond any single transaction.

Immigrants on the Eastern Shore face significant challenges: demanding work, limited services, geographic isolation, and often a sense of being socially excluded despite being economically essential. During my decade of research on the Eastern Shore, from 2014–2024, I found that these networks of mutual aid aren’t just about getting by. They’re about building community in places that often feel unwelcoming, about creating bonds of trust and reciprocity that make rural life sustainable for both immigrants and rural communities as a whole.”

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.”