International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Volume 13, Issue 9, 2016

Return migrants’ experience of access to care in corrupt healthcare systems: The Bosnian example (Article) (Open Access)

Handlos L.N.* , Olwig K.F. , Bygbjerg I.C. , Norredam M.
  • a Danish Research Centre for Migration, Ethnicity and Health, Section for Health Services Research, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, 1014, Denmark
  • b Department of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, 1353, Denmark
  • c Section of Global Health, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, 1014, Denmark
  • d Danish Research Centre for Migration, Ethnicity and Health, Section for Health Services Research, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, 1014, Denmark, Section of Immigrant Medicine, Department of Infectious Diseases, University Hospital Hvidovre, Hvidovre, 2650, Denmark

Abstract

Equal and universal access to healthcare services is a core priority for a just health system. A key societal determinant seen to create inequality in access to healthcare is corruption in the healthcare system. How return migrants’ access to healthcare is affected by corruption is largely unstudied, even though return migrants may be particularly vulnerable to problems related to corruption due to their period of absence from their country of origin. This article investigates how corruption in the healthcare sector affects access to healthcare for refugees who repatriated to Bosnia, a country with a high level of corruption, from Denmark, a country with a low level of corruption. The study is based on 18 semi-structured interviews with 33 refugees who returned after long-term residence in Denmark. We found that the returned refugees faced greater problems with corruption than was the case for those who had not left the country, as doctors considered them to be better endowed financially and therefore demanded larger bribes from them than they did from those who had remained in Bosnia. Moreover, during their stay abroad the returnees had lost the connections that could have helped them sidestep the corruption. Returned refugees are thus particularly vulnerable to the effects of corruption. © 2016 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Author Keywords

Bosnia and Herzegovina Access to healthcare return migration Corruption

Index Keywords

Denmark return migration semi structured interview Bosnia and Herzegovina health care system refugee migrants experience corruption health services health care cost human
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84989298338&doi=10.3390%2fijerph13090924&partnerID=40&md5=c7ac87108999e5493b694f6a001d4710
DOI: 10.3390/ijerph13090924
ISSN: 16617827
Cited by: 3
Original Language: English