Internal bordering and debordering in urban humanitarian health care

Bibliographic Data

ID2149555
AuthorsCorinna A Di Stefano (0000-0003-2648-4130, University of Konstanz, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume47
Issue12
Pages2520-2540
Publication date2024-09-09
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueEthnic and Racial Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0141-9870 • E-ISSN: 1466-4356
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/01419870.2024.2344691
OpenAlexW4396856552
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited45

Current literature on internal bordering has suggested understanding health care as a key migration control field. This article takes a closer look at the humanitarian medical offices in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, and patients from Romania and Bulgaria in precarious life circumstances. It addresses the strategies identified in the accounts of frontline workers beyond the mere provision of access to free and anonymous medical attention. Based on 16 interviews with medical staff, social workers and administrative officers, two approaches emerged. One clearly strives for the formalisation of the human right to health care in close collaboration with, or by challenging the local bordering actors; the other insists on bypassing any point of contact with them, focusing exclusively on informal and direct solutions. The interviews showcase how the resulting strategies can contribute to internal bordering and debordering on an urban scale, and affect the individuals' trajectories as patients and as migrants

Health care · Internal migration · Political science · Population · Sociology · Demography · Homelessness and Social Issues · Law · Migration, Health and Trauma · Migration, Refugees, and Integration

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