IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jscscx/v12y2023i4p224-d1118973.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Human Rights Violations and Mistrust among Refugees in South Africa: Implications for Public Health during the COVID Pandemic

Author

Listed:
  • Aron Tesfai

    (Discipline of Psychology, School of Applied Human Sciences, College of Humanities, Howard College Campus, University of Kwa-Zulu-Natal, Durban 4041, South Africa)

  • Michaela Hynie

    (Department of Psychology, Centre for Refugee Studies, York University, 4700 Keele St., Toronto, ON M3J 1P3, Canada)

  • Anna Meyer-Weitz

    (Discipline of Psychology, School of Applied Human Sciences, College of Humanities, Howard College Campus, University of Kwa-Zulu-Natal, Durban 4041, South Africa)

Abstract

Despite the open policy of integration, refugees in South Africa have been experiencing increasing exclusion and discrimination in socio-economic development and from social services. State-sanctioned discrimination contributes to mistrust among marginalized groups toward the government and its institutions. However, public trust towards healthcare authorities and government institutions is critical during pandemic outbreaks to ensure the population’s willingness to follow public health initiatives and protocols to contain the spread of a pandemic. Eleven key informants, including refugee community leaders and refugee-serving NGOs, were virtually interviewed about refugees’ access to healthcare in South Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic and the consequences of inconsistent access and discrimination on their trust of public healthcare initiatives. Interviews were analyzed using critical thematic analysis. The results suggest that refugees’ access to public healthcare services were perceived as exclusionary and discriminatory. Furthermore, the growing mistrust in institutions and authorities, particularly the healthcare system, and misperceptions of COVID-19 compromised refugees’ trust and adherence to public health initiatives. This ultimately exacerbates the vulnerability of the refugee community, as well as the wellbeing of the overall population.

Suggested Citation

  • Aron Tesfai & Michaela Hynie & Anna Meyer-Weitz, 2023. "Human Rights Violations and Mistrust among Refugees in South Africa: Implications for Public Health during the COVID Pandemic," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-15, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:12:y:2023:i:4:p:224-:d:1118973
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/12/4/224/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/12/4/224/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alberto Alesina & Paola Giuliano, 2015. "Culture and Institutions," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 53(4), pages 898-944, December.
    2. Hakimu Sseviiri & Amanda Alencar & Yeeko Kisira, 2022. "Urban Refugees’ Digital Experiences and Social Connections During Covid-19 Response in Kampala, Uganda," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 10(2), pages 276-286.
    3. Eri Bertsou, 2019. "Political Distrust and its Discontents: Exploring the Meaning, Expression and Significance of Political Distrust," Societies, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-18, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Núria Rodríguez‐Planas, 2018. "Mortgage finance and culture," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(4), pages 786-821, September.
    2. Qiliang Mao & Xianzhuang Mao, 2021. "Cultural barriers, institutional distance, and spatial spillovers: Evidence from regional industrial evolution in China," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(3), pages 1440-1481, September.
    3. Stefano Bartolini & Francesco Sarracino, 2021. "Happier and Sustainable. Possibilities for a post-growth society," Department of Economics University of Siena 855, Department of Economics, University of Siena.
    4. Hugh-Jones, David & Ooi, Jinnie, 2023. "Where do fairness preferences come from? Norm transmission in a teen friendship network," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    5. Avtonomov, Vladimir S. (Автономов, Владимир) & Vorobyev, Andrei S. (Воробьев, Андрей) & Kononenko, Pavel B. (Кононенко, Павел) & Raskov, Danila E. (Расков, Данила) & Tulchinskii, Grigorii L. (Толчинск, 2017. "Culture as the New Frontier of Economics [Культура Как Новый Фронтир В Экономической Науке]," Ekonomicheskaya Politika / Economic Policy, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, vol. 5, pages 178-193, October.
    6. Chen, Xia & Wang, Lili & Zhu, Yinghuan & Shang, Yue, 2023. "Has shareholder background been priced?–Evidence from the issuance of financial bonds by financial leasing companies," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    7. Alfano, Vincenzo, 2024. "Unlocking the importance of perceived governance: The impact on COVID-19 in NUTS-2 European regions," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 343(C).
    8. Valencia Caicedo, Felipe & Dohmen, Thomas & Pondorfer, Andreas, 2023. "Religion and cooperation across the globe," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 215(C), pages 479-489.
    9. Kumse, Kaittisak & Suzuki, Nobuhiro & Sato, Takeshi & Demont, Matty, 2021. "The spillover effect of direct competition between marketing cooperatives and private intermediaries: Evidence from the Thai rice value chain," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    10. Åsa Johansson, 2016. "Public Finance, Economic Growth and Inequality: A Survey of the Evidence," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 1346, OECD Publishing.
    11. Tiia-Lotta Pekkanen, 2021. "Institutions and Agency in the Sustainability of Day-to-Day Consumption Practices: An Institutional Ethnographic Study," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 168(2), pages 241-260, January.
    12. Samuel Bazzi & Gabriel Koehler-Derrick & Benjamin Marx, 2020. "The Institutional Foundations of Religious Politics: Evidence from Indonesia [“The Classical Islamic Law of Waqf: A Concise Introduction”]," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 135(2), pages 845-911.
    13. Laliotis, Ioannis & Minos, Dimitrios, 2022. "Religion, social interactions, and COVID-19 incidence in Western Germany," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    14. Joan Costa-Font & Paola Giuliano & Berkay Ozcan, 2018. "The cultural origin of saving behavior," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(9), pages 1-10, September.
    15. Aepli, Manuel & Kuhn, Andreas & Schweri, Jürg, 2021. "Culture, norms, and the provision of training by employers: Evidence from the Swiss language border," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    16. Polterovich, Victor, 2022. "Экономическая Теория И Формирование Человеческих Качеств [Economic theory and the formation of human qualities]," MPRA Paper 111540, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Tang, Can & Zhao, Zhong, 2022. "Informal institution meets child development," MERIT Working Papers 2022-032, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    18. Pablo Zarate & Mathias Dolls & Steven J. Davis & Nicholas Bloom & Jose Maria Barrero & Cevat Giray Aksoy, 2024. "Why Does Working from Home Vary Across Countries and People?," NBER Working Papers 32374, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Michelle Albert Vachris & Justin P. Isaacs, 2017. "The Role of Cultural Values in the Formation and Survival of Pro-Growth Institutions," Journal of Private Enterprise, The Association of Private Enterprise Education, vol. 32(Spring 20), pages 89-113.
    20. Glawe, Linda & Wagner, Helmut, 2017. "The Deep Determinants at More Subtle Stages of Development: The Example of the Middle-Income Trap Phenomenon," CEAMeS Discussion Paper Series 11/2017, University of Hagen, Center for East Asia Macro-economic Studies (CEAMeS), revised 2017.

    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:gam:jscscx:v:12:y:2023:i:4:p:224-:d:1118973. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.