Migrants and access to health care in Costa Rica

As in most immigrant-receiving countries in the global North, countries in the South face challenges regarding migrant access to social rights and the effect of migrants on the sustainability of the welfare state. In the Latin American context, this holds especially for countries such as Costa Ric...

Full description

Main Authors: Voorend, Koen, Bedi, Arjun S., Sura Fonseca, Rebeca
Format: Artículo
Published: Elsevier 2021
Subjects:
Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10669/84738
id 84738
recordtype dspace
spelling 847382021-11-04T22:12:50Z Migrants and access to health care in Costa Rica Voorend, Koen Bedi, Arjun S. Sura Fonseca, Rebeca Migration Healthcare Costa Rica Nicaragua Central America Nutrition policy Política de la salud Migración Salud As in most immigrant-receiving countries in the global North, countries in the South face challenges regarding migrant access to social rights and the effect of migrants on the sustainability of the welfare state. In the Latin American context, this holds especially for countries such as Costa Rica, which has one of the strongest social policy regimes in the South and the highest (Nicaraguan) immigrant stock in Latin America. Set in the context of Costa Rica, this paper assesses two views which seem hard to reconcile, and, are common in the country. First, it is claimed that Nicaraguan migrants use public health services disproportionately, thereby threatening the country’s welfare system. Second, pro-migrant rights non-governmental organizations and academics are concerned, primarily based on qualitative studies, that access to health services for Nicaraguan immigrants is limited, and that they are discriminated based on nationality. This paper relies on administrative data and a unique data set representative of Nicaraguan born individuals residing in Costa Rica to examine the validity of both these claims. We do not find support for either. The incidence of migrant health care use is lower than their share in the population and at the same time there is no evidence of discrimination in health care access for migrants based on their nationality. The paper underlines the need for more informed migration debates. 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license UCR::Vicerrectoría de Investigación::Unidades de Investigación::Ciencias Sociales::Instituto de Investigaciones Sociales (IIS) 2021-05-20T19:42:52Z 2021-05-20T19:42:52Z 2021-05-20T19:42:52Z 2021-03-22 artículo científico artículo científico https://hdl.handle.net/10669/84738 Elsevier World Development 144 (2021)
institution Universidad de Costa Rica
collection Repositorio KERWA
topic Migration
Healthcare
Costa Rica
Nicaragua
Central America
Nutrition policy
Política de la salud
Migración
Salud
spellingShingle Migration
Healthcare
Costa Rica
Nicaragua
Central America
Nutrition policy
Política de la salud
Migración
Salud
Voorend, Koen
Bedi, Arjun S.
Sura Fonseca, Rebeca
Migrants and access to health care in Costa Rica
description As in most immigrant-receiving countries in the global North, countries in the South face challenges regarding migrant access to social rights and the effect of migrants on the sustainability of the welfare state. In the Latin American context, this holds especially for countries such as Costa Rica, which has one of the strongest social policy regimes in the South and the highest (Nicaraguan) immigrant stock in Latin America. Set in the context of Costa Rica, this paper assesses two views which seem hard to reconcile, and, are common in the country. First, it is claimed that Nicaraguan migrants use public health services disproportionately, thereby threatening the country’s welfare system. Second, pro-migrant rights non-governmental organizations and academics are concerned, primarily based on qualitative studies, that access to health services for Nicaraguan immigrants is limited, and that they are discriminated based on nationality. This paper relies on administrative data and a unique data set representative of Nicaraguan born individuals residing in Costa Rica to examine the validity of both these claims. We do not find support for either. The incidence of migrant health care use is lower than their share in the population and at the same time there is no evidence of discrimination in health care access for migrants based on their nationality. The paper underlines the need for more informed migration debates. 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license
format Artículo
author Voorend, Koen
Bedi, Arjun S.
Sura Fonseca, Rebeca
author_sort Voorend, Koen
title Migrants and access to health care in Costa Rica
title_short Migrants and access to health care in Costa Rica
title_full Migrants and access to health care in Costa Rica
title_fullStr Migrants and access to health care in Costa Rica
title_full_unstemmed Migrants and access to health care in Costa Rica
title_sort migrants and access to health care in costa rica
publisher Elsevier
publishDate 2021
url https://hdl.handle.net/10669/84738
_version_ 1758381168914333696
score 12.043616