IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v182y2017icp52-59.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The gap between entitlement and access to healthcare: An analysis of “candidacy” in the help-seeking trajectories of asylum seekers in Montreal

Author

Listed:
  • Chase, Liana E.
  • Cleveland, Janet
  • Beatson, Jesse
  • Rousseau, Cécile

Abstract

In 2012 the Canadian government made significant cuts to its historically strong federal refugee health coverage plan. While this policy had negligible effects on the level of coverage provided to asylum seekers in Quebec, there is evidence that this group nonetheless experienced reduced healthcare access during the period of polarized national debate that ensued. This study engaged the “candidacy” model of healthcare access to illuminate factors contributing to the observed gap between entitlement and access. Twenty-five semi-structured interviews were conducted with asylum seekers in Montreal to elicit narrative accounts of difficulties encountered in the pursuit of healthcare. Thematic content analysis in conjunction with a holistic examination of help-seeking trajectories revealed several important barriers to obtaining care, including widespread confusion and misinformation about refugee health coverage, cumbersome administrative procedures specific to asylum seekers, and long wait times. Feelings of marginalization and insecurity associated with precarious migratory status appeared to amplify the effects of these barriers to care such that even a minor access difficulty could have dramatic effects on future help-seeking and access outcomes. Demonstrating awareness of public discourses interrogating their deservingness of health coverage, participants often interpreted access difficulties as evidence of health professionals' unwillingness to serve them. Such interpretations conspired with fears associated with the asylum claim process to suppress self-advocacy, further help-seeking, and at times even information-seeking. This finding is particularly significant in that it suggests a mechanism through which hostile public representations of forced migrants–increasingly prevalent in Western host countries–can themselves endanger the physical, psychological, and social health of highly disadvantaged populations, even in the presence of strong entitlement policies. We close with reflections on how theoretical models of healthcare access might be adjusted to better accommodate the unique experiences of precarious status migrants.

Suggested Citation

  • Chase, Liana E. & Cleveland, Janet & Beatson, Jesse & Rousseau, Cécile, 2017. "The gap between entitlement and access to healthcare: An analysis of “candidacy” in the help-seeking trajectories of asylum seekers in Montreal," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 182(C), pages 52-59.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:182:y:2017:i:c:p:52-59
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.03.038
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953617301946
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.03.038?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Vanthuyne, Karine & Meloni, Francesca & Ruiz-Casares, Monica & Rousseau, Cécile & Ricard-Guay, Alexandra, 2013. "Health workers' perceptions of access to care for children and pregnant women with precarious immigration status: Health as a right or a privilege?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 78-85.
    2. Cécile Rousseau & Youssef Oulhote & Mónica Ruiz-Casares & Janet Cleveland & Christina Greenaway, 2017. "Encouraging understanding or increasing prejudices: A cross-sectional survey of institutional influence on health personnel attitudes about refugee claimants' access to health care," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(2), pages 1-14, February.
    3. Ruiz-Casares, Mónica & Rousseau, Cécile & Derluyn, Ilse & Watters, Charles & Crépeau, François, 2010. "Right and access to healthcare for undocumented children: Addressing the gap between international conventions and disparate implementations in North America and Europe," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(2), pages 329-336, January.
    4. Silove, D. & Steel, Z. & McGorry, P. & Drobny, J., 1999. "Problems Tamil asylum seekers encounter in accessing health and welfare services in Australia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 49(7), pages 951-956, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mackintosh, Nicola & Gong, Qian (Sarah) & Hadjiconstantinou, Michelle & Verdezoto, Nervo, 2021. "Digital mediation of candidacy in maternity care: Managing boundaries between physiology and pathology," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 285(C).
    2. Jaschke, Philipp & Kosyakova, Yuliya, 2020. "Does facilitated access to the health system improve asylum-seekers' health outcomes? : Evidence from a quasi-experiment," IAB-Discussion Paper 201907, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Schapiro, Naomi A. & Gutierrez, J. Raul & Blackshaw, Amy & Chen, Jyu-Lin, 2018. "Addressing the health and mental health needs of unaccompanied immigrant youth through an innovative school-based health center model: Successes and challenges," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 133-142.
    2. Jones, Peris Sean, 2012. "Mind the gap: Access to ARV medication, rights and the politics of scale in South Africa," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(1), pages 28-35.
    3. Cécile Rousseau & Joanna Anneke Rummens & Rochelle L. Frounfelker & Monica Ruiz Casares Yebenes & Janet Cleveland, 2022. "Canadian Health Personnel Attitudes Toward Refugee Claimants’ Entitlement to Health Care," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 1341-1356, September.
    4. O'Donnell, Alexander W. & Stuart, Jaimee & O'Donnell, Karlee J., 2020. "The long-term financial and psychological resettlement outcomes of pre-migration trauma and post-settlement difficulties in resettled refugees," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 262(C).
    5. Chavez, Leo R., 2012. "Undocumented immigrants and their use of medical services in Orange County, California," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(6), pages 887-893.
    6. Solina Richter & Helen Vallianatos & Jacqueline Green & Chioma Obuekwe, 2020. "Intersection of Migration and Access to Health Care: Experiences and Perceptions of Female Economic Migrants in Canada," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(10), pages 1-11, May.
    7. Cécile Rousseau & Youssef Oulhote & Mónica Ruiz-Casares & Janet Cleveland & Christina Greenaway, 2017. "Encouraging understanding or increasing prejudices: A cross-sectional survey of institutional influence on health personnel attitudes about refugee claimants' access to health care," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(2), pages 1-14, February.
    8. Viladrich, Anahí, 2012. "Beyond welfare reform: Reframing undocumented immigrants’ entitlement to health care in the United States, a critical review," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(6), pages 822-829.
    9. Ming Sheng Wang & Ching-Hsuan Lin, 2023. "Barriers to Health and Social Services for Unaccounted-For Female Migrant Workers and Their Undocumented Children with Precarious Status in Taiwan: An Exploratory Study of Stakeholder Perspectives," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(2), pages 1-16, January.
    10. Tuomisto, Karolina & Tiittala, Paula & Keskimäki, Ilmo & Helve, Otto, 2019. "Refugee crisis in Finland: Challenges to safeguarding the right to health for asylum seekers," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 123(9), pages 825-832.
    11. Jaschke, Philipp & Kosyakova, Yuliya, 2020. "Does facilitated access to the health system improve asylum-seekers' health outcomes? : Evidence from a quasi-experiment," IAB-Discussion Paper 201907, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    12. Arnold, Christine & Theede, Jason & Gagnon, Anita, 2014. "A qualitative exploration of access to urban migrant healthcare in Nairobi, Kenya," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 1-9.
    13. Andy Jolly, 2018. "No Recourse to Social Work? Statutory Neglect, Social Exclusion and Undocumented Migrant Families in the UK," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 6(3), pages 190-200.
    14. Bachner-Melman, Rachel & Slone, Michelle & Lev-Ari, Lilac & Youngmann, Rafael, 2018. "The effect of marital and migrant status on the psychological distress of low socioeconomic mothers and their children in Israel," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 254-262.
    15. Goldade, Kate & Okuyemi, Kolawole S., 2012. "Deservingness to state health services for South–South migrants: A preliminary study of Costa Rican providers’ views," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(6), pages 882-886.
    16. Marion Heyeres & Nirukshi Perera & Hyacinth Udah & Akpene Attakey & Mary Whiteside & Komla Tsey, 2021. "Interventions Targeting the Wellbeing of Migrant Youths: A Systematic Review of the Literature," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(3), pages 21582440211, September.
    17. Vanthuyne, Karine & Meloni, Francesca & Ruiz-Casares, Monica & Rousseau, Cécile & Ricard-Guay, Alexandra, 2013. "Health workers' perceptions of access to care for children and pregnant women with precarious immigration status: Health as a right or a privilege?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 78-85.
    18. Gottlieb, Nora & Filc, Dani & Davidovitch, Nadav, 2012. "Medical humanitarianism, human rights and political advocacy: The case of the Israeli Open Clinic," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(6), pages 839-845.
    19. Daisy Michelle Princeton & Ida Marie Bregård & Marianne Annion & Gine Shooghi & Gitte Rom & Brynja Örlygsdóttir & Hildur Sigurðardóttir & Riita Kuismin & Joonas Korhonen & Sezer Kisa, 2021. "Mental Health Challenges of Young Labor Migrants from the Healthcare Professionals Perspective: Lessons Learned from a Multi-Country Meeting," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-5, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:182:y:2017:i:c:p:52-59. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.