Fields of inequity: initial insights into structural disparities among migrant farmworkers in Maryland

Background

Despite well documented health vulnerabilities of migrant and seasonal farmworkers (MSFWs), few public health studies have comprehensively evaluated these population health differences through the lens of social causal structures. In this article we describe a community-based participatory and interdisciplinary research partnership, RESPIRAR, a community-based and interdisciplinary research collaboration that seeks to understand the social, structural and institutional drivers of respiratory health and housing conditions of migrant and seasonal farmworkers (MSFWs) in the Mid-Atlantic States and we report on structured disparities among MSFWs in Maryland participating in our study. Few data exist on the demographics, health and housing conditions of MSFs currently employed in Maryland.