This talk is by Josephine T. V. Greenbrook, University of Gothenburg

This talk will present the underpinnings for an ongoing longitudinal study being conducted in Sweden. This interdisciplinary project aims to untangle the complexities involved in using medicine as a conduit for migration control policy, when regulating physicians’ obligations to report undocumented migrants seeking care. The study takes a broadened ethnographic approach, and is based on constructivist qualitative interviews conducted in various contexts within the healthcare system and medical education, participant observations conducted in medical humanitarianism and in civil society contexts engaged in the issue of mandatory reporting, and media analyses of ongoing discourses and debates at a societal level in the public sphere. The study is a collaboration between the University of Gothenburg and the University of Edinburgh, and is funded by the Swedish Research Council and the University of Edinburgh.

Additional educational resources 

• Berlinger N. Is It Ethical to Bend the Rules for Undocumented and Other Immigrant Patients? AMA journal of ethics. 2019;21(1):E100-105.
• Castañeda H. Medical aid as protest: acts of citizenship for unauthorized im/migrants and refugees. Citizenship studies. 2013;17(2):227–40.
• Fabi RE, Taylor HA. Prenatal Care for Undocumented Immigrants: Professional Norms, Ethical Tensions, and Practical Workarounds. The Journal of law, medicine & ethics. 2019;47(3):398–408.
• Filc D, Davidovitch N, Gottlieb N. Beyond “New Humanitarianism”: Physicians for Human Rights-Israel’s Mobile Clinic and Open Clinic on the Interface of Social Justice, Human Rights and Medical Relief. Journal of human rights practice. 2015;7(1):88–108.
• Guillot-Wright S, Farr NM, Cherryhomes E. A community-led mobile health clinic to improve structural and social determinants of health among (im)migrant workers. International journal for equity in health. 2022;21(1):58–58.
• Jawed A, Moe SM, Anderson M, Slaven JE, Wocial LD, Saeed F, et al. High Moral Distress in Clinicians Involved in the Care of Undocumented Immigrants Needing Dialysis in the United States. Health Equity. 2021;5(1):484–92.
• Kerani RP, Kwakwa HA. Scaring Undocumented Immigrants Is Detrimental to Public Health. American journal of public health (1971). 2018;108(9):1165–6.
• Vanobberghen R, Louckx F, Depoorter AM, Devroey D, Vandevoorde J. The Role of Physicians During Hunger Strikes of Undocumented Migrant Workers in a Non-Custodial Setting. Perspectives in biology and medicine. 2019;62(1):111–30.
• Willen SS. Do “Illegal” Im/migrants Have a Right to Health? Engaging Ethical Theory as Social Practice at a Tel Aviv Open Clinic. Medical anthropology quarterly. 2011;25(3):303–30.

About Nordic Global Health Talks

Nordic Global Health Talks is a monthly webinar series about global health research at Nordic universities, hosted by the Nordic Network on Global Health. It is free and open to everyone interested in knowing more about Nordic global health research, education and collaborative projects.

Read more and find the programme here.