Decicco Philip, Prakash Jaya, Nelson Erica, Martínez de Vedia Gonzalo, Stoklosa Hanni
Justice at Work, USA.
HEAL Trafficking, Harvard Medical School, USA.
J Migr Health. 2025 May 21;11:100335. doi: 10.1016/j.jmh.2025.100335. eCollection 2025.
The H-2A Temporary Agricultural Workers program brings hundreds of thousands of foreign workers into the United States to work in the agricultural sector each year. It is well documented that H-2A workers are susceptible and subjected to unsafe working conditions and other workplace abuses. Employed in the agricultural sector, H-2A workers are exposed to higher rates of workplace hazards and riskier workplace settings, including risk for human trafficking. As foreign-born workers living on the same farms in which they are employed, they face language and information barriers when accessing resources outside of those provided by their employer. All these factors contribute to creating significant barriers for H-2A workers when accessing healthcare. This paper uses ArcGIS software and publicly available information to analyze the proximity and accessibility of healthcare resources to H-2A workers in Pennsylvania. We find that less than half of H-2A workers in Pennsylvania in 2021 resided within a 15-minute drive of the types of healthcare providers best suited to address their particular needs. We also posit that this methodology could be used in the future to better allocate and prioritize resources to create intervention points and address the unique needs of this at-risk worker population, including health care interventions for human trafficking victims.
H-2A临时农业工人计划每年将数十万外国工人带入美国，在农业部门工作。有充分的文献记载，H-2A工人容易受到不安全的工作条件和其他工作场所虐待行为的影响。受雇于农业部门的H-2A工人面临更高的工作场所危险率和更危险的工作场所环境，包括遭受人口贩运的风险。作为居住在其工作农场的外国出生工人，他们在获取雇主提供之外的资源时面临语言和信息障碍。所有这些因素都为H-2A工人获得医疗保健造成了重大障碍。本文使用ArcGIS软件和公开可用信息来分析宾夕法尼亚州医疗资源对H-2A工人的接近程度和可及性。我们发现，2021年宾夕法尼亚州不到一半的H-2A工人居住在距离最适合满足其特殊需求的医疗服务提供者15分钟车程内。我们还认为，这种方法未来可用于更好地分配资源并确定优先次序，以创建干预点并满足这一高危工人群体的独特需求，包括对人口贩运受害者的医疗保健干预。
