“Sans-papiers fall ill while seeking regularisation not before”

Do illegal immigrants put a strain on the European care systems? A survey on illegal immigrants’ health which Médecins du Monde (MDM, Doctors of the World) presented on Thursday 24 September, corrects a deep-rooted prejudice according to which foreigners migrate clandestinely to be cured in Europe.

From this survey, carried out with 1218 illegal immigrants, taken in at MDM’s headquarters in eleven European countries (Germany, Belgium, Spain, France, Greece, Italy, The Netherlands, Portugal, United Kingdom Sweden and Switzerland), it emerges that there is no correlation between migrations for health reasons and the differences between national legislations regarding  access to care treatments.

In France, where the conditions of care access are quite favourable, 10.1% of the interviewees mentioned health as reason for migration , in Greece 8.5% did and in Sweden 7.8%.  This despite the fact that these two countries are among the less welcoming in this respect.

In Spain, where the legislation is favourable, just 4.2% of interviewees mentioned health as reason for migration.  “Immigrants are not sick people who come to Europe to be treated.  They are mainly young and healthy individuals who migrate for political or economic reasons, and who reach Europe to build themselves a future. It is the kind of welcome and life conditions that we reserve them that make them sick”, says  Nathalie Simonnot, who has coordinated this survey authenticated by researchers of the Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale (Inserm –the national institute for health and medical research) and of the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS – the scientific research national Centre).

 

In fact immigrants without permission to stay interviewed by MDM declare they are in “bad” or “very bad state of health” three times more frequently than the average of the European Union population, and even sixteen times more often than German people.

 

This strongly felt state of health is confirmed by the doctors within the association, who have noticed that 32% of interviewed illegal immigrants had been affected by at least one chronic health trouble, which had not been apparent before their departure for Europe.

 

No control of pregnancy

 

Employed in sectors of activity which offer difficult working conditions, these undocumented immigrants often find precarious housing.

 

“A striking shortage of care and of control adds to these pathogenic life conditions. A third of these people have health problems for which a treatment is indispensable and yet they are not being treated at all”, reveals  Nathalie Simonnot.

 

Contrary to a commonly thought idea according to which immigrants would take advantage of the health systems of the country in which they reside, undocumented immigrants rarely have access to treatments. When they do manage to do so, it is often after having waited for a long time to consult a medical expert.

 

 “When I am sick, I put myself to bed and I just wait until I get better,” says an Ivorian woman who let herself be persuaded to consult a doctor only during her eighth month of pregnancy.

 

Around half of the concerned pregnant women do not obtain any control during pregnancy. Médecins du monde also reveals that children are not often taken care of, despite the fact that they are protected by an international convention which is supposed to guarantee them access to health services.

 

The organisation asks European governments  to dissociate their health policies from their immigration policies.

 

Article translated from Le Monde