Almost half of the Hispanics who have studied a scientific career in USA face some form of mistreatment during their studies, such as being treated as if they don’t understand the topic of conversation, according to research from the Pew Research Center.

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43% of Hispanics who work in science or technology subjects say they have suffered one of these three types of mistreatment during their education: being treated as if they were unable to understand the class, feeling that they do not deserve to be in the class or receiving negative comments about their race or ethnicity.

By contrast, 33% of white workers in scientific fields claim to have suffered similar experiences.

It’s just one of many findings from the Pew Research Center study on the attitudes and confidence in science of Hispanics living in the United States, based on surveys of more than 14,000 Americans, 3,700 of them of Hispanic origin.

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The study also shows that the vast majority of workers with Hispanic roots in STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, in English) have had positive experiences during their studies.

The researchers found that the majority of Hispanics -six in ten- believe that there are not enough scientists of their same ethnicity in relevant positions, but that if there were, there would be many more young Latinos interested in studying STEM careers.

In this sense, only 26% of the Hispanics interviewed consider that they are welcome in scientific careers, while almost 30% believe that they are not at all welcome by this type of professional.

The opinions of Americans of Hispanic origin regarding medicine are somewhat better, but they also show a difference in treatment compared to white people.

One of the most relevant data in the publication is that more than half of Hispanic Americans, and especially first-generation immigrants, consider that abuse by medical researchers is a major problem in the country.

Among these, the group that shows the most concern regarding medical malpractice -referring to cases such as forced sterilization or experiments carried out without informing the participants- are Hispanics who identify as black, although this group is very small within the group of Hispanics, since it barely comprises 3% of them.

It also highlights the fact that almost half of Hispanics who have been in the United States for ten years or less have not been to the doctor in the last year, a much lower figure in the case of those who have been in the country for more than 20 years.

This may be related to the fact that nearly half of Latinos believe that it is difficult to access healthcare in the United States, although the other half consider it to be simple, numbers very similar to those registered between whites and blacks.

Hispanic trust in healthcare professionals is generally high, although, as with other ethnic groups, it has been undermined during the pandemic.

Finally, regarding COVID-19, the majority of Americans of Hispanic origin -74%- believe that they can trust the advice of medical experts about the disease.