The Undeserving Other: A Study of Service and Healthcare Providers' Perspectives on "Latino-ness" in Williamsburg

Drawing from interviews with fourteen healthcare and social service providers, as well as participant observations at a local low-income clinic, this study examines professionals' perceptions concerning the needs of Latino/a immigrants in the community and the barriers that patients face when accessing healthcare. I analyze the ways in which these healthcare workers and service providers define and construct the category of "Latino." The study examines providers' interpretations and assumptions regarding cultural differences as they affect patient care. I argue that despite these providers' best intentions and commitment to providing healthcare to underserved populations, many of their approaches to and understandings of the category of "Latino" actually contribute to a process of "othering" that defines Latinos/as as outside of the "imagined community" of Williamsburg, and, indeed, the nation (Anderson 1985)