Contextualizing migrants' strategies of seeking medical care in Russia

Abstract

Russia is an important destination for labour migrants from the former Soviet Union republics especially Central Asian low-income countries: Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. The life of migrants from Central Asia is characterized in Russia by scarce resources and social exclusion. Limited access to healthcare is aggravated by the negative attitudes and discrimination that migrants face when visiting state hospitals and clinics. In our study, we aim to describe the medical infrastructure available to migrants in Moscow. We investigate how migrants use formal and informal strategies to overcome the barriers to their receiving medical care in the urban environment. The study is based on the analysis of qualitative interviews with 60 labour migrants from Central Asian countries and 23 caregivers working in Moscow-based medical facilities such as state hospitals, outpatient clinics, ambulance stations, and private medical centres including the so-called Kyrgyz clinics.

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