Suffering and surviving beyond home borders: experiences of Zimbabwean migrant women in accessing health care services in Giyani, South Africa (original) (raw)
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African Human Mobility Review, 2021
South Africa has a professed inclusive health policy that articulates that everyone is entitled to have access to health-care services, regardless of nationality and citizenship. However, several challenges exist for migrant women in South Africa, in accessing this health care. This paper, based on the experiences of Zimbabwean migrant women residing in Durban, focuses on their experiences of seeking and accessing health-care services in South Africa. Using a qualitative study design, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 22 purposively sampled female participants aged 25-49 years. This paper employs a structural-violence analysis to probe the underlying factors that make it challenging for Zimbabwean migrant women to access public health-care services in South Africa. The findings of this paper highlight that the lack of valid immigration documentation, often makes it challenging for participants to access services from public hospitals and clinics. The findings also reveal that the state of the South African public health-care system predisposes migrant women to health risks.
Anthropology Southern Africa, 2018
South Africa is signatory to international protocols that secure migrant rights to healthcare. Its national health policy prohibits discrimination. Pregnant women and children under six years ostensibly enjoy access to free healthcare, irrespective of migration status. What is clear "on paper," however, becomes considerably more opaque when experienced by those who do not "have papers." We explore this in Giyani, South Africa, an important migrant destination. Despite a progressive healthcare policy and immigrant rights regime, migrant women's lack of proper documentation precludes them in practice from accessing state-provided reproductive healthcare. The result is twofold. Women who are entitled to public healthcare prefer to make use of private healthcare, despite the costs, and they make recourse to a range of extra-state relations for healthcare. We focus on one unexpected consequence: that the same healthcare providers who have formally refused access to state institutions may be available to migrants through personal networks, such as in churches. Here, medical care is seen as taking place in a religious register. The difference between what is "on paper" and "what papers migrants have" is critical but may be mediated by access to other realms of the social.
Urban Forum
Maternal mortality in South Africa is unacceptably high, and interventions to address this are urgently needed. Whilst urban centres, such as Johannesburg, are home to significant numbers of non-national migrant women, little is known about their maternal healthcare experiences. In order to inform future research, an exploratory study investigating the maternal healthcare and help-seeking experiences of migrant women living in inner-city Johannesburg was undertaken. Intersections between migration, maternal health and life in the city were explored through semi-structured interviews with 15 Zimbabwean women who had engaged with the public healthcare system in Johannesburg during pregnancy and childbirth. Interviews were dominated by reports of verbal abuse from healthcare providers and delays in receiving careparticularly at the time of delivery. Participants attributed these experiences to their use of English-rather than other South African languages; further work comparing this with the experiences of nationals is required. Beyond the healthcare system, the study suggests that the well-being of these migrant women is compromised by their living and working conditions in the city: maintaining access to income-generating activities is prioritised over accessing antenatal care services. Migrant Zimbabwean women make use of their religious and social networks in the city to inform help-seeking decisions during pregnancy and delivery. Improving the maternal healthcare experiences of urban migrant women should contribute to reducing maternal mortality in South Africa. Further research is required to inform interventions to improve the maternal health of migrant women in the city, including the multiple determinants of urban health that operate outside the biomedical healthcare system.
Journal of Public Health Policy, 2011
We present qualitative data from a 2005 exploratory study, recently published studies, and an analysis of the Department of Health's strategic plan to highlight the need for a broader policy debate on health-care access for migrants in South Africa. We conducted in-depth interviews with 15 Zimbabwean women living in inner-city Johannesburg to document the special characteristics of this group of migrants, enquiring about their perceptions of HIV risk, and experiences of health services in South Africa. We identified access barriers, namely perceptions of relatively low HIV risk, severely constrained financial circumstances, uncertain legal status, and experiences of unresponsive health workers. We recommend that migranthealth rights be placed on South Africa's policy agenda, migrants be included in HIV prevention programs and that health workers be sensitized to the needs of migrants.
2020
Maternal health is a key issue in any health discourse, in any country. Access to healthcare for pregnant women is a concern of governments the world over. However, in South Africa, a binary system separates migrant and non-migrant women, favouring non-migrant women’s access to maternal healthcare. The paradox of pregnant migrant women’s access to healthcare has therefore become topical among researchers, in a bid to understand the issue, and consequently, influence policy. The present study was designed to explore the concerns of migrant women accessing maternal healthcare in Johannesburg. Through a qualitative design, a non-representative sample of 15 migrant women and healthcare providers were interviewed, and the findings were coded and analysed according to thematic content. The findings show the context in which free access to maternal healthcare has created a paradox within the system. This is especially the case in terms of access, consultation time and the dissemination of ...
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The Trials and Tribulations of Zimbabwean Precarious Women Workers in Johannesburg: A Cry for Help?
Qualitative Sociology Review 2019 Volume XV Issue 1, 2019
There is a growing literature on the conditions of Zimbabwean women working as migrant workers in South Africa, specifically in cities like Johannesburg. Based on in-depth interviews and documentary analysis, this empirical research paper contributes to scholarship examining the conditions of migrant women workers from Zimbabwe employed as precarious workers in Johannesburg by zooming in on specific causes of migration to Johannesburg, the journey undertaken by the migrant women to Johannesburg, challenges of documentation, use of networks to survive in Johannesburg, employment of the women in precarious work, and challenges in the workplace. Rape and sexual violence are threats that face the women interviewed during migration to Johannesburg and even when in Johannesburg. The police who are supposed to uphold and protect the law are often found to be perpetrators involved in various forms of violence against women. In the workplace, the women earn starvation wages and work under poor working conditions. Human rights organizations and trade unions are unable to reach the many migrant women because of the sheer volume of violations against workers’ rights and human rights.