From Care to Control: The Hidden Surveillance Network in Immigrant Healthcare

Wed, March 19, 2025 3:00 PM at Zoom

GEMHS is hosting a talk by our colleague, Dr. Nilufer Akalin (Assistant Professor at Lyman Briggs).

From Care to Control: The Hidden Surveillance Network in Immigrant Healthcare

This paper examines how the healthcare access process for immigrants functions as a surveillance mechanism, focusing on the role of safety net organizations in state-driven healthcare delivery models. While scholars have explored healthcare surveillance through documentation and immigration enforcement, little attention has been given to how surveillance is embedded within the structure of care itself. Drawing on ethnographic observations at an immigrant organization and in-depth interviews with 28 care professionals in a city in Upstate New York (2019–2021), I demonstrate that as safety net organizations become partners in state-led health collaborations, their financial and operational priorities increasingly align with state surveillance. I argue that through various health-related screenings and interactions with providers, a data network is established between the state and safety net organizations that collect and share personal and health information. This research contributes to scholarship on healthcare surveillance, immigrant health, and data governance by revealing how these institutions create a collective data pool that shapes immigrant healthcare experiences while raising ethical concerns about data-driven monitoring. Amid growing state scrutiny and advancements in AI-driven data collection, these dynamics have urgent implications for immigrant rights and healthcare accessibility.

https://msu.zoom.us/j/99506721983