No abstract

Globalization, including the global flows of people, is clearly linked to disease transmission and vulnerability to health risks among immigrant populations. Anthropological research on transnational migration and health documents the implications of population movements for health and well-being. Studies of immigrant health reveal the importance of the social, political, and economic production of distress and disease as well as the structures and dynamics that produce particular patterns of access to health services. This review points to underlying political, economic, and social structures that produce particular patterns of health and disease among transnational migrants. Both critical and phenomenological analyses explore ideas of alterity and community, which underlie the production and management of immigrant health. Research on immigrant health underscores the importance of further attention to policies of entitlement and exclusion, which ultimately determine health vulnerabilities and accessibility of health care.

Since the early 1970s, the French public health system has been accorded considerable responsibility for immigrants identified by the educational, judicial or social service authorities as psychologically distressed or socially disruptive. In this paper we discuss three models of healing embedded in constructs of "cultural difference" and addressed at specialized mental health-care centers catering to immigrants in Paris: "cultural mediation," transcultural psychiatry/ethnopsychiatry and clinical medical anthropology. Based on observations and interviews at three specialized mental health centers in Paris, we explore how these clinical approaches address migrant wellbeing and seek to resolve crises in migrant families, especially those of West African origin. We suggest that the prevalent approaches to therapy creatively blend concepts and practices of anthropology, psychiatry and psychology but, at the same time, confront challenges inherent in the use of a generic "African" healing modality. Cases studies demonstrate that in order for such interventions to be perceived as effective by patients, "cultural difference" must be acknowledged but also situated in broader social, political and economic contexts.

Popular and professional representations of the body profoundly shape maternity care for migrant Muslim women from the Senegal River Valley in West Africa, now residing in Paris, France. In this article, we suggest that the body has become the site of inscription for the politics of discrimination prevalent in France and heavily focused on Muslim immigrant populations (Burgat, 2003;Quiminal and Timera, 2002).Muslim populations in France are represented mainly by North and sub-Saharan Africans, although each of these communities has been stigmatized differently in the media and popular discourse. While North Africans are frequently categorized as religious fundamentalists reticent to assimilate to French society (Hargreaves, 1995), sub-Saharan Africans have until recently been less likely to be labeled as Muslims, except with respect to the practice of polygamy. 1 The November 2005 riots involving both North and sub-Saharan immigrants in France, however, generated public debate in which sub-Saharan migrants were prominently identified as Muslim.

Le travail avec l’interprète de service public est complexe et les formations à ce niveau, relativement rares. Le diplôme universitaire (DU) Pratiques de médiation et de traduction en situation transculturelle est une formation continue offerte conjointement à des intervenants de différents champs (médical, social, éducatif) et à des interprètes. Le projet de recherche présenté ici a comme objectif d’explorer les effets de la formation sur la collaboration entre intervenant et interprète, en particulier autour des enjeux de pouvoir, de contrôle et de confiance. Trente-deux participants au DU (24 intervenants et 8 interprètes) ont répondu à un questionnaire sociodémographique, puis participé à des entrevues de groupe. La grande majorité a une expérience à la fois professionnelle et personnelle des diversités, voire du métissage. Notamment par la réflexion personnelle et le travail collaboratif qu’elle suscite, la formation favorise un sentiment de légitimité de ces diversités. Cela a vraisemblablement une influence positive sur la relation entre les intervenants et les interprètes ainsi que sur l’emploi de la médiation et même sur la mise sur pieds de projets extraprofessionnels, dans la communauté. Malgré les changements observés, les interprètes restent aux prises avec un manque de reconnaissance de la part des institutions.