Suchergebnisse

Although Member states have increasingly relied on welfare policies to control intra-EU migration in the last decade, they often grant additional social rights to EU citizens who do not comply with residency requirements set by EU law, revealing a gap between declared restrictive aims and actual inclusive measures. Based on document analysis and semi-structured interviews in Belgium, this article analyses the interests and logics of the plurality of institutional and civil society actors on the welfare-EU migration nexus, suggesting that policy inconsistency resulted from the struggle of these – conflictive – logics. In doing so, the paper also reveals how the category of 'illegal EU migrants' has been institutionally produced 'from below', with healthcare providers, welfare bureaucracies and pro-immigrant organisations – rather than 'the State' – taking the lead in that process. ; Peer reviewed

Talk delivered at the ECPR General Conference - Wrocław, 4-7 September 2019 Section: International Migration from a Comparative Perspective: Policies, Practices, and Outcomes. 16 pages. ; The definition of intra-EU mobility has been accompanied by advancing coordination in the field of social protection across the EU, including health care. Although EU law guarantees equal access to health care in a host Member State for employed or self-sufficient EU citizens, some countries broadened eligibility criteria over time to include precarious EU citizens. In times of economic downturn and widespread concerns about "welfare tourism", however, restrictions in access to health care have been debated and even introduced against those mobile EU citizens who have been increasingly perceived as a burden on the national healthcare system. By focusing on policies regulating access to health care for precarious EU citizens in the Italian and Spanish universalistic health care systems, this study explores the ways in which health-related deservingness of mobile EU citizens has been (re)defined in times of crisis. It suggests that, in these countries, different measures regulating access to health care for precarious EU citizens reflected different national health care models and policy traditions concerning the healthcare-irregular migration nexus. Under the guise of the economic crisis and the need to fight (a supposed) "medical tourism", however, both countries introduced restrictions in eligibility criteria and complex procedural requirements largely affecting precarious EU citizens, converging in policy measures aimed at excluding the undeserving "illegal EU migrants" from the realm of social citizenship. ; Peer reviewed

AbstractUntil recently, migrant health policies have been overlooked as a topic of policy analysis. Although interest in the issue has developed in parallel with the progressive acknowledgement of the presence of unhealthy migrants and the transformation of welfare states and policy dynamics in Europe, studies on migrant health policies have often focused on the state as a unique unit of observation while hindering the role played by other institutional and non‐institutional actors taking part in the migrant health multi‐level governance. This contribution will bridge this gap, deconstructing the various actors and levels involved in migrant health policymaking from a multi‐level perspective. By critically reviewing migrant health policy research and discussing it with the new MIPEX Health Strand, this contribution suggests a more encompassing perspective in the analysis of migrant health policies and processes, looking at the different players at stake in this multifaceted policy field.

Since multiple crises are currently affecting Europe, interest on changes in intra-EU mobility patterns, policies and EU movers' strategies of integration has re-emerged in academic debates. What seems to still lack to date is a focus on the chaining actors linking the macro level of policies and the micro level of individual strategies, that is, civil servants who are in charge of implementing national policies in their daily encounters with EU citizens. Through an in-depth qualitative analysis of formal policies and daily practices in the field of healthcare for EU citizens in Piedmont, in the North of Italy, this contribution analyses how EU citizens' right to free movement and equal access to social protection is officially framed and concretely enacted within the boundaries of the Italian National Healthcare System and the role of health workers as de facto citizenship-makers. It suggests that, along with managerial orientations, different evaluations of the Italian economic and financial situation, and of EU citizens' root motivations behind their decisions to move across Europe play a crucial role in shaping health workers' assessments of EU citizens' deservingness of healthcare. ; Peer reviewed

Since multiple crises are currently affecting Europe, interest on changes in intra-EU mobility patterns, policies and EU movers' strategies of integration has re-emerged in academic debates. What seems to still lack to date is a focus on the chaining actors linking the macro level of policies and the micro level of individual strategies, that is, civil servants who are in charge of implementing national policies in their daily encounters with EU citizens. Through an in-depth qualitative analysis of formal policies and daily practices in the field of healthcare for EU citizens in Piedmont, in the North of Italy, this contribution analyses how EU citizens' right to free movement and equal access to social protection is officially framed and concretely enacted within the boundaries of the Italian National Healthcare System and the role of health workers as de facto citizenship-makers. It suggests that, along with managerial orientations, different evaluations of the Italian economic and financial situation, and of EU citizens' root motivations behind their decisions to move across Europe play a crucial role in shaping health workers' assessments of EU citizens' deservingness of healthcare ; Peer reviewed

Talk presented at ECPR General Conference - Oslo, September 7, 2017 Section: The Citizenship - Migration Nexus: Citizens, Migrants, Humans? 21 pages ; Healthcare for migrants in Italy is indisputable. Migrants in an irregular situation are entitled to urgent and essential care, provided free-of-charge in case of indigence. They may obtain temporary permits of stay when in need of specific medical treatments. Repatriation may be stopped when they are diagnosed with pathologies that require medical treatments that are not available in their native counties. Thus, the Italian policy framework is highly inclusive. Yet, in a context of increased intra-EU mobility and 'refugee crisis' on the one hand, and drastic cuts to economic and healthcare resources on the other, we might wonder how access to healthcare for migrants is concretely enacted, given that the responsibility to draw the line between those who can access scarce institutional and economic resources and those who do not is in charge of gatekeepers of the healthcare system. By presenting an in-depth qualitative analysis of health workers' discourses and practices in their encounters with migrants in ambiguous legal conditions requiring access to Piedmont healthcare system (undocumented migrants, pending asylum seekers, EU citizens in condition of economic indigence), this study will highlight that different perceptions of the Italian economic situation and of the affordability of universal health coverage, as well as diverging moral constructions of migrants and their motivations behind migration, play a crucial role in shaping health workers' practices of healthcare, who de facto decide 'who gets what'. ; Peer reviewed

Migrants' healthcare entitlement represents a conflictive issue in the political battlefield, with research pointing towards the determinant role of party politics in determining policy outputs. Addressing the 2012 healthcare reform and 2018 counter-reform adopted in Spain by a right-wing and left-wing government respectively and drawing on qualitative analysis of parties' discourses and policy measures, we argue that ideological differences along the healthcare-migration nexus were overemphasised to play symbolic politics. Partisan competition had less impact on actual outputs, while clashes between the central and regional governments, path-dependent practices and opposition from multiple venues played a central role in the policymaking process. ; Peer reviewed

Migrants' healthcare entitlement represents a conflictive issue in the political battlefield, with research pointing towards the determinant role of party politics in determining policy outputs. Addressing the 2012 healthcare reform and 2018 counter-reform adopted in Spain by a right-wing and left-wing government respectively and drawing on qualitative analysis of parties' discourses and policy measures, we argue that ideological differences along the healthcare-migration nexus were overemphasised to play symbolic politics. Partisan competition had less impact on actual outputs, while clashes between the central and regional governments, path-dependent practices and opposition from multiple venues played a central role in the policymaking process. ; Peer reviewed

La importancia de proteger la salud de las personas inmigrantes ha sido ampliamente reconocida como condición necesaria para responder eficazmente a la pandemia del COVID-19, subrayando la necesidad de garantizar que todas ellas, independientemente de su situación administrativa, tengan acceso a la atención sanitaria. En este contexto, este artículo pasa revista brevemente a las principales medidas adoptadas en materia de inmigración y atención sanitaria en distintos países europeos y se centra, específicamente, en el caso español. Al respecto, destaca que poco se ha hecho para reducir las vulnerabilidades de los grupos inmigrantes frente a la COVID-19. Avanzar en esa dirección hubiera requerido desarrollar iniciativas para eliminar las barreras lingüísticas, organizativas y administrativas que impiden el pleno acceso de estas poblaciones a las medidas de prevención, diagnóstico y contención del virus.

Undocumented Migrants (UDM) belong to the most vulnerable groups in times of global emergency situations. COVID-19 does hit hardest the most vulnerable groups and it is important to create an evidence base to guide policy making. The Center for Health and Migration, Vienna, has initiated a stock-taking of national regulations concerning access to health and social care for UDM. The initiative aims to create a landscape of policy frameworks to inform policy making and practice development. National experts on health and migration are contacted and asked to provide information on the respective legal frameworks in the following categories: work, housing, compulsory education, social welfare, and health. A validated template is used for data collection.