The Letter and Spirit of the Law: Barriers to Healthcare Access for Asylum Seekers in France

Paul May ()
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Paul May: Université du Québec à Montréal

Journal of International Migration and Integration, 2021, vol. 22, issue 4, No 10, 1383-1401

Abstract: Abstract This article focuses on the barriers to healthcare access experienced by asylum seekers in France. Based on data from a qualitative analysis involving 52 semi-structured interviews with asylum seekers, it uses critical race theory (CRT) to understand informal obstacles to healthcare access that are not identifiable in the study of national legislation. Our findings are twofold. First, institutional barriers result from the mismatches between administrative procedures to ensure healthcare access and the real-world concrete difficulties that asylum seekers have to face because of their ethnic and national backgrounds. Second, psychological barriers that hinder refugee from requesting and obtaining proper healthcare (mistrust of public authorities, feeling of discrimination) can be more fully explained by considering the experiences of trauma, insecurity, and marginalization that asylum seekers are forced to endure once they depart from their country of origin. From an academic point of view, this study highlights the importance of including subaltern people in considering the migratory phenomenon, in order to uncover the less visible aspects of discriminatory process. From a political point of view, this study calls for the modification of certain aspects of the asylum procedure which are not suited to the concrete situation of asylum seekers.

Keywords: Immigration; Asylum seekers; France; Healthcare (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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DOI: 10.1007/s12134-021-00821-5

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