ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Hum. Dyn.
Sec. Dynamics of Migration and (Im)Mobility
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fhumd.2025.1568290
This article is part of the Research TopicLabour and Health of Undocumented Migrant Women: Condition, Trends and Critical IssuesView all articles
Between endowment and entitlement on the access to healthcare: Acts of citizenship of undocumented migrant women in the Sicilian Healthcare system
Provisionally accepted
- University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy
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Migrant women's wellbeing and access to health are particularly impacted by gender inequality and discrimination, traditional female roles, gendered labour market, gender-based violence and feminization of poverty. From an intersectional lens, undocumented migrant women are at the lowest tier in the hierarchy of healthcare access (Dahlgren & Whitehead, 1991;Lombardi, 2005). This research explores the nexus of irregular migration and health spheres in a gender perspective, focusing in particular on the undocumented migrant women's acts of citizenship (Isin & Nielsen, 2008). Based on the theoretical framework of fundamental causes (Link & Phelan, 1995), this research analyses the perception of street level bureaucrats, through the conduction of fifteen semi-structured interviews, in 2024-2025, on the endowment to health assets of undocumented migrant women in Sicily, by answering the following research questions: 1) how the undocumented status of migrant women affects their endowment in accessing healthcare?; 2) in what way does the socioeconomic status influence the access of undocumented migrant women to health? and 3) how can undocumented migrant women's social capital enhance their endowment to health?
Keywords: undocumented migrant women, Health Entitlement and endowment, Theory of fundamental causes, social determinants of health, Italy
Received: 29 Jan 2025; Accepted: 24 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Pascoal. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Rafaela Hilário Pascoal, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy
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