Castañeda

Heide Castaneda

Professor and Associate Chair of Anthropology, University of South Florida, Tampa
Chapter Member: Florida SSN

About Heide

Castañeda’s areas of expertise include migration; citizenship; and how legal institutions shape everyday experiences of immigrant communities. Her book; Borders of Belonging: Struggle and Solidarity in Mixed-Status Immigrant Families (2019); examines the impact of immigration policies and practices not only on undocumented migrants; but also on their family members; including US citizens. Recent studies examine mixed-status immigrant families; U.S./Mexico border enforcement; the experiences of immigrant youth; and transit migration to destinations in the United States and Europe. Castañeda has worked with community organizations including United We Dream; Florida Immigrant Coalition (FLIC); and La Union del Pueblo Entero (LUPE). http://www.heidecastaneda.com

No Jargon Podcast

In the News

Opinion: "What Has the Pandemic Taught Us About Borders?," Heide Castaneda, Tampa Bay Times, February 11, 2022.
Quoted by Tom Woolfe in "A Perfect Storm for DACA Recipients and Their Families," USF Magazine, April 10, 2021.
Opinion: "Immigrant Communities in the Covid-19 Pandemic: Old and New Insights on Mobility, Bordering Regimes, and Social Inequality," Heide Castaneda (with William D. Lopez), items Insights from the Social Sciences, October 29, 2020.
Opinion: "Borders of Belonging: Mixed-Status Families and the Impacts of Family Separation on Population Health," Heide Castaneda, Interdisciplinary Association for Population Health Science, November 18, 2019.
Quoted by Gillian Friedman in "President Trump Ramped up Rhetoric on Immigration Before the Midterms. Did it Work?," Deseret News, November 11, 2018.
Opinion: "With Attention Elsewhere, Healthcare for Millions Quietly Still at Risk," Heide Castaneda (with Jessica M. Mulligan and Mark Schuller), Huffpost, June 2, 2017.
Opinion: "With Attention Elsewhere, Healthcare for Millions Quietly Still at Risk," Heide Castaneda (with Jessica Mulligan and Mark Schuller), HuffPost, June 2, 2017.
Guest on WNYC: The Leonard Lopate Show, December 16, 2016.
Research discussed by Inara Verzemnieks, in "Life in ObamaCare's Dead Zone," New York Times Magazine, December 6, 2016.
Quoted by Inara Verzemnieks in "Life in ObamaCare’s Dead Zone," New York Times, December 6, 2016.
Opinion: "How the Supreme Court Decision on United States v. Texas Will Affect Millions of Families," Heide Castaneda, The Conversation, June 16, 2016.
Opinion: "Why Deferred Action is Important," Heide Castaneda, Rio Grande Guardian, April 19, 2016.
Opinion: "American Politicians' Reactions to Refugees Echo Past Xenophobia: Which Side of History Do We Want to Be On?," Heide Castaneda (with Seth M. Holmes and Jennifer Burrell), Huffington Post, November 20, 2015.
Quoted by Marvin Félix and Mike Clary in "The Uncertain Future of Undocumented Children," Sun Sentinel, March 25, 2015.
Quoted by Martin Z. Braun in "De Blasio Gathers Mayors to Support Obama Immigration Order," Bloomberg, December 8, 2014.
Opinion: "From Alienation to Protection: Central American Child Migration," Heide Castaneda (with Lauren Heidbrink and Kristin Yarris), Access Denied: A Conversation on Unauthorized Im/migration and Health, September 4, 2014.
Opinion: "Encounters of Violence and Care: Central American Transit Migration through Mexico," Heide Castaneda (with Kristin Yarris), Somatosphere, September 2, 2014.
Interviewed in "Tales from the Border: USF Professor Visits Texas and Mexico," WUSF News, August 6, 2014.
Interviewed in "Zu Gast: Heide Castañeda," Der Taggesspiegel, June 23, 2012.
Research discussed by Patricia Leigh Brown, in "Grueling Life of Workers behind Scene at Racetrack," San Francisco Chronicle, September 16, 2011.
Quoted by in "Respect Cultural Differences with Care," Patient Education Management, January 1, 2011.
Opinion: "Study Finds That Dental Literacy is Not the Problem," Heide Castaneda, Streamline: The Migrant Health News Source, November/December 2010.

Publications

"‘Do I Really Need to Check That Box?’ Ethnoracial Ambiguity Among Indigenous North Africans in the United States" (with Amine Bit). Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies (2024).

This article examines the experiences of Amazigh people (plural: Imazighen) and how they negotiate ethnoracial hierarchies in the United States. Imazighen are Indigenous peoples from North Africa. This article explores how a categorically ambiguous population grapples with everyday moments of racial appraisal and how they arrive at a sense of reflected race. Because the labels they are accustomed to (e.g. Amazigh or Berber) are illegible in the U.S., they become open to racialization processes, usually in conversation with notions of Arabness and Africanness. Simultaneously, they challenge norms of racial classification, particularly by introducing an Indigenous dimension.

"“A Lot of People There Were Undocumented, or at Least Looked like Me”: Illegality, Visibility and Vulnerability Among Immigrant Young Adults in Florida" (with Elizabeth M. Aranda and Melanie Escue). Journal of Cultural Geography 40, no. 2 (2023): 118-142.

Highlights the role of precarious legal status, focusing on undocumented immigrant young adults who grew up in the United States, to examine subjective experiences of place-making and belonging in situations of heightened visibility, deportability and vulnerability. Findings point to the importance of “co-legal status”. This extension of the concept of co-ethnicity references shared experience of illegality as it relates to place-making for legally precarious individuals.

"Migration and Health: Critical Perspectives" (Routledge, 2023).

This book offers a radical rethinking of the field by unsettling conventional ideas of mobility and borders to highlight the ways in which they produce health inequalities. It provides insight through a critical lens, and proposes areas for intervention along with an added emphasis on the need for future research to address the health inequities that affect migrants. It illustrates how a critical perspective can deepen our understanding of the relationship between migration and health, which remains a defining global issue of our century.

"Borders of Belonging: Struggle and Solidarity in Mixed-Status Immigrant Families" (Stanford University Press, 2019).

Investigates a pressing but previously unexplored aspect of immigration in America—the impact of immigration policies and practices not only on undocumented migrants, but also on their family members, some of whom possess a form of legal status. Heide Castañeda reveals the trauma, distress, and inequalities that occur daily, alongside the stratification of particular family members' access to resources like education, employment, and health care.

" Unequal Coverage: The Experience of Health Care Reform in the United States" (with Jessica M. Mulligan) (NYU Press, 2017, paperback 2017).

Documents the everyday experiences of individuals and families across the U.S. as they attempted to access coverage and care in the five years following the passage of the ACA. It argues that while the Affordable Care Act succeeded in expanding access to care, it did so unevenly, ultimately also generating inequality and stratification.

"Geographies of Confinement for Immigrant Youth: Checkpoints and Immobilities along the US/Mexico Border" (with Milena A. Melo). Law & Policy 41, no. 1 (2018): 80-102.

Explores the impact of border enforcement on undocumented youth in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, revealing how checkpoints and policing create spatial barriers that lead to confinement and social exclusion. Highlights how these practices affect sense of citizenship and social membership, as all residents must prove their identity, conflating "citizenship" with "authorization."

"Is Coverage Enough? Persistent Health Disparities in Marginalised Latino Border Communities" Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 43, no. 12 (2017): 2003-2019.

Presents results from a longitudinal , five-year ethnographic study of healthcare access in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. Explores reasons why this region along the U.S./Mexico border has the highest rate of uninsured persons in the country and remains among the most medically underserved, despite some increases in coverage accompanying the Affordable Care Act. Argues that the convergence of healthcare and immigration policy, framed by a unique regional history and social environment, has had multiple direct and indirect impacts on health and healthcare access.

"Health Care Access for Latino Mixed-Status Families: Barriers, Strategies, and Implications for Reform" (with Milena A. Melo). American Behavioral Scientist (2014).
Reports on health care seeking experiences of mixed-status families and the impact of the recent health care reform (Affordable Care Act, or ACA).