The term amnesty has two defined meanings in the English language: “the official act of forgiving people who have committed offences against the state and allowing them to go free” and “a period of time during which people can admit to doing something wrong without fear or punishment.” In the context of immigration, amnesty has been of great relevance in recent years in two ways.
First, immigrants who are undocumented often lack access to adequate health care. This may be the case where the State wishes to withhold certain benefits such as free health care to undocumented immigrants. Legislation and entitlement for undocumented immigrants varies across and often even within countries; undocumented immigrants may fear that efforts to obtain health services will draw attention to their immigration status. Additionally, many immigrants, including those with documentation, face non-statutory barriers to health care, such as culture and language.
It is difficult to quantify the extent to...
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Hanefeld, J. (2012). Amnesty. In: Loue, S., Sajatovic, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Immigrant Health. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-5659-0_38
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