Viladrich Anahí
Urban Public Health Program, The School of Health Sciences, Hunter College of the City University of New York, New York, NY 10010-2590, USA.
Cult Med Psychiatry. 2007 Sep;31(3):307-28. doi: 10.1007/s11013-007-9058-y.
This article examines Argentine immigrants' reliance on informal networks of care that enable their access to a variety of health providers in New York City (NYC). These providers range from health brokers (doctors known on a personal basis) to urban shamans, including folk healers and fortunetellers of various disciplines. A conceptual framework, based on analysis of social capital categories, is proposed for the examination of immigrants' access to valuable health resources, which are based on relationships of reciprocity and trust among parties. Results revealed immigrants' diverse patterns of health-seeking practices, most importantly their reliance on health brokers, epitomized by Argentine and Latino doctors who provide informal health assistance on the basis of sharing immigrants' social fields and ethnic interests. While mental health providers constitute a health resource shared by Argentines' social webs, urban shamans represent a trigger for the activation of women's emotional support webs. Contrary to the familiar assumption that dense and homogenous networks are more beneficial to their members, this article underscores the advantages of heterogeneous and fluid social webs that connect immigrants to a variety of resources, including referrals to diverse health practitioners.
本文探讨了阿根廷移民对非正式护理网络的依赖，这些网络使他们能够接触到纽约市的各种医疗服务提供者。这些提供者包括健康经纪人（私人认识的医生）到城市萨满，其中包括不同学科的民间治疗师和算命者。基于对社会资本类别的分析，提出了一个概念框架，用于研究移民获取宝贵健康资源的情况，这些资源基于各方之间的互惠和信任关系。结果揭示了移民多样化的求医模式，最重要的是他们对健康经纪人的依赖，以阿根廷和拉丁裔医生为代表，他们在共享移民社会领域和种族利益的基础上提供非正式的健康援助。虽然心理健康服务提供者是阿根廷人社交网络共享的一种健康资源，但城市萨满则是激活女性情感支持网络的一个触发因素。与常见的假设，即密集和同质的网络对其成员更有益相反，本文强调了异质和流动的社会网络的优势，这些网络将移民与各种资源联系起来，包括转介给不同的医疗从业者。
