Migratory Labour and the Politics of Prevention: Motility and HPV Vaccination Among Florida Farmworkers

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the US and causes a number of cancers that are preventable through vaccination. The HPV vaccine requires multiple injections, and vaccination completion rates are low among low-income and minority groups. Low rates are exacerbated by structural impediments that prevent vaccination among some populations, such as Latinx (a gender-neutral way to refer to Latino/a) migrant farmworkers. This chapter focuses on how agricultural labour mobility and vaccine policy converge to constrain Latinx migrant farmworkers’ ability to get the HPV vaccine for their children. Using the theoretical lens of motility, the chapter examines how heightened mobility associated with agricultural labour results in never-materializing efforts to complete HPV vaccination for children of migrant farmworkers, despite potential to do so. Overall, our chapter shows how, paradoxically, increased mobility results in a type of public health “stillness” or “stuckness” in being unable to obtain a preventive public health measure due to larger structural obstacles.