University of Sussex
Browse
ACHIEVING JUSTICE FOR REFUGEE HEALTH - Prepublication version for SRO.pdf (305.68 kB)

From self-interest to solidarity: one path towards delivering refugee health

Download (305.68 kB)
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-09, 13:19 authored by Peter West-OramPeter West-Oram
The recent and ongoing refugee crisis in Europe highlights conflicting attitudes about the rights of migrants and refugees to health care in transition and destination countries. Some European and Scandinavian states, such as Germany and Sweden, have welcomed large numbers of migrants, while others, such as the UK, have been significantly less open. In part, this is because of reluctance by certain national governments to incur what are seen as the high costs of delivering aid and care to migrants. In response to these assumptions, some theorists have argued that the appropriate way to view the health needs of migrants is not in terms of rights, but in terms of the interests of destination and transition countries – and have argued that providing care to migrants and refugees will generate benefits for their host countries. However, self-interest alone is less effective at motivating the provision of care for health deprivations which do not pose a threat to third parties, or to migrants and refugees in poor or distant countries. In this paper, I argue that while self-interest is unlikely in itself to motivate the provision of all necessary health care to all migrants and refugees, and may risk stigmatizing already vulnerable persons, it can provide the foundation upon which such motivations can be built. My goal is therefore to show how and why a more just approach to the provision of health care to migrants can and should be derived from narrower, self-interested commitments to preserving citizen health.

Funding

Political Philosophy and Bioethics; Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft; BU 2450/1-2

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Accepted version

Journal

Bioethics

ISSN

1467-8519

Publisher

Wiley

Issue

6

Volume

32

Page range

343-352

Department affiliated with

  • Clinical and Experimental Medicine Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2018-05-16

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2020-07-30

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2018-05-15

Usage metrics

    University of Sussex (Publications)

    Categories

    No categories selected

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC