Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum: Blueprint for a Better America – Ensuring Our Immigration System Advances the Health and Well-Being of Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, and All Immigrants

This policy brief from the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum outlines how comprehensive, common-sense immigration laws and policies can advance the health and well-being of Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, and all immigrants.

Despite providing new opportunities, significant parts of the U.S. immigration system are broken. While the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has expanded health care coverage options for some immigrants, immigration status continues to stand as the major social determinant impacting health and hampering the progress of immigrant communities in unnecessary ways. The policy brief  includes the following recommendations to promote public health and economic well-being:

1. Foster healthy communities by keeping families together.
2. Fulfill the promise of health reform by removing barriers to health care for immigrants.
3. Fix our broken immigration system and create a fair pathway to citizenship.
4. Include immigrant workers in the U.S workforce while enforcing existing labor laws.
5. Foster civic engagement, equal opportunity, and integration for immigrants.
6. Address global and U.S. factors that create migration for economic opportunities.

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