Publication Date
Fall 2024
Abstract
As asylum seekers increase worldwide, their medical needs pose a critical global health issue for host countries. Asylum seekers enter host countries such as Switzerland and Morocco with unique healthcare needs that require responses from international governmental organizations (IGOs), non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and governments. These actors navigate challenges within their responses that stem from healthcare systems and policies, legal status, and living conditions, each of which impact the medical needs of asylum seekers. Coordination and cultural competence is known to be important in asylum seeker healthcare, but less is known about the connection between asylum seeker medical issues and the complexities within actor responses. This paper analyzes how actors respond to the healthcare needs of asylum seekers in Switzerland and Morocco through a qualitative case-study approach. It aims to identify the challenges actors face as they treat the medical needs of asylum seekers to discover the best practices for mitigating barriers to care.
Findings demonstrate that various factors impact the medical needs of asylum seekers and thus actor responses, creating a need for coordination between actors with the purpose of developing and implementing cohesive, culturally competent policies for the improvement of this demographic’s health. This highlights the need for a leading agency dedicated to asylum seeker health to mitigate the challenges posed by healthcare systems and policies, legal status, and living conditions that affect their medical needs and the responses of actors.
Key Words: Asylum seekers, healthcare policies, legal status, collective housing, coordination, cultural competence, global health, actors, stakeholders.
Disciplines
Medicine and Health Sciences | Social and Behavioral Sciences
Recommended Citation
Prost, Sophia, "System, Status, and Setting: Analyzing the Response of Governmental and Non-Governmental Actors to Asylum Seeker Healthcare Needs The Cases of Switzerland and Morocco" (2024). Switzerland: Global Health and Development Policy. 4.
https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/szh2/4