Immigration Status and Basic Social Human Rights: A Comparative Study of Irregular Migrants' Right to Health Care in France, the UK and Canada

Abstract

The article examines the constraints that irregular migrants' immigration status exerts on the realisation of their basic social human rights. To this end, the article focuses on the right to health care and undertakes a comparative study of irregular migrants' access to health care in France, the United Kingdom and Canada. The study shows that States perceive the conferment of social rights on irregular migrants as an erosion of the government's immigration power notwithstanding their characterisation as human rights. The resource-intensive nature of the right to health care further heightens States' reluctance to extend this right to irregular migrants. Yet compliance with international human rights law and respect for human dignity require that States reinstate personhood as a source of rights and therefore reassess the relevance of their immigration power.

How do international human rights influence national healthcare provisions for irregular migrants?: A case study in France and the United Kingdom

“…In both countries, access to healthcare for irregular migrants on a case-by-case basis did not correspond to an increase in rights as such. Instead it led to a decrease in the meaning of health rights (Da Lomba 2010). For all these reasons, if the restrictions that these states place on irregular migrants' access to healthcare are not formally a violation of human rights (especially of Article 12 of the ICESCR), they do however tend to de-humanise irregular migrants.…”

“…On the one hand these countries have comparable socio-economic structures and have one of the highest gross domestic products (GDP) in the world; they are among the most important destination countries and host a large number of irregular migrants, and they have declared themselves committed to international human rights. On the other hand these countries are seen as different with regard to citizenship and health policies so that their legal responses to irregular migrants' healthcare differ significantly (Cattacin, Chimienti and Björgren 2006, Da Lomba 2010, Karl-Trummer and Novak-Zezula 2011 The paper is organised in five sections. The next section explores the role of international human rights in relation to health and their rationale.…”

Immigration Status as the Foundational Determinant of Health for People Without Status in Canada: A Scoping Review

“…The literature establishes that people without immigration status in Canada are popularly portrayed as morally inferior [ 14 , 16 , 17 ], as taking advantage of Canada’s generosity [ 24 , 28 , 31 ], or as threats to national security [ 24 , 30 ]. According to the articles we reviewed, the idea that people without status do not deserve access to healthcare and social services because they do not contribute to the system is prevalent in Canada [ 16 , 32 ].…”

“…The argument that people without status do not contribute has been challenged as incorrect, as these individuals do pay sales tax, effectively supporting a system from which they do not derive any benefit [ 13 ]. Still, our review highlights that irregular migration has come to be associated with criminality [ 21 , 24 , 33 ], and that people without status, particularly those who are racialized, are popularly perceived in Canada as abusive of Canadian institutions, having not arrived through “regular” channels [ 14 , 16 , 32 ]. Problematically, such views are prevalent among healthcare professionals [ 14 , 16 ].…”

“…Miklavic [ 35 ] describes invisibility as “ascribed to the illegal immigrant by the host country via exclusionary practices resembling social death” (p. 501). As a clear sign of their invisibility in research and policy, there are limited data on the numbers of people without status in Canada [ 16 , 30 , 31 , 36 ], as well as limited data on their specific healthcare needs and usage [ 24 ]. Villegas [ 22 ] calls for more options for people without status to be able to safely document their presence in Canada in order to improve wellbeing and community participation.…”