Impeded care, constrained care: experiences of asylum seekers and health care workers in France

Purpose This research explores the ethical and practical challenges in the care of newly arrived asylum seekers. This study aims to understand how healthcare systems in France, shaped by racial, gender and class–based biases, not only fail to provide adequate care but also contribute to dehumanisation and marginalisation. Design/methodology/approach Ethnographic observations and semi–structured interviews conducted between 2022 and 2023 with asylum seekers, NGO representatives, social workers, healthcare professionals and public servants in various reception and health services across Île–de–France, Châteauroux and Bourges. Findings The authors’ study of provision of healthcare for newly arrived asylum seekers in France has foregrounded the contradictions between an obligation to undergo certain medical tests and procedures and a restriction on more general access to health care. This contradiction is grounded in racialised and colonialist images and representations of asylum seekers (and migrants more generally) as both a “threat” to public health as vectors of disease and also a “threat” to national health systems because of the cost of treating them. Originality/value Analysing the constraints and impediments placed in the path of newly arrived asylum seekers who need medical care allows us to shed a broader light on the ways in which state abandonment and violence towards these racialised people on the move, create (often unintentionally) new forms of violence even from those who are supposed to be caring for and treating them. Analysing the care of asylum seekers in France makes it possible to highlight the obstacles that can influence the care relationship but also the vulnerabilities created by the system within multiple forms of domination and exclusion.