Women's health access in the context of forced migration in Portugal: vulnerabilities and adaptation

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21680/2446-7286.2023v9n2ID31928

Abstract

Introduction: This article presents the findings, related with the vulnerabilities regarding access to health services felt by refugee women, of a research project conducted in Portugal between 2020 and 2022 as part of the Masters in Intercultural Relations program at Universidade Aberta. Objective: The overall goal was to gain a better understanding of the psychosocial reality of women who arrived in Portugal as a result of forced migration, focusing on the main difficulties of the migratory and adaptation journey - highlighting vulnerabilities related to health and access to health services at the present article - and the protective factors that facilitated their processes of resilience, adaptation, and social integration. Methodology: To that end, the protagonists' meanings for their experiences were revealed through nine semi-structured and in-depth interviews with women from Iraq, Syria, and Libya. Results: The investigation uncovered a number of vulnerabilities caused by migratory experience and gender belonging, which justified the intersectional analysis. The findings reveal a number of challenges in the host country, This article is going to focus on the findings concerning health, specifically, the reported vulnerabilities and difficulties related with the access to health care services. Conclusions: The current investigation led to the conclusion that there are serious flaws in Portugal in terms of ensuring full access to health care for forced migrant women, highlighting as major obstacles: a lack of information in a language other than portuguese, a lack of command of the portuguese language, a lack of knowledge about how health institutions work, and a lack of sensitivity and intercultural skills in care.

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Author Biographies

Catarina Sampaio, Center for the Study of Migrations and Intercultural Relations (CEMRI/UAb)

Catarina Sampaio graduated from the University of Porto's Faculty of Letters with a degree in Languages and International Relations and has a postgraduate degree in Human Rights from the Ius Gentium Conimbrigae/Centro de Direitos Humanos de Coimbra (IGC/CDH). She pursued her master's degree in Intercultural Relations at the Open University, where she presented a thesis titled "Women and Forced Migration in Portugal: Adaptation, Resilience, and Social Integration," which received 19 points. Her master's thesis was chosen for to be published in book form and integrate the Thesis Collection of the Observatório das Migrações do Alto Comissariado para as Migrações (ACM, IP). She is a co-researcher at the Center for the Study of Migrations and Intercultural Relations, Lisbon, Open University (CEMRI/UAb).

Natália Ramos, Center for the Study of Migrations and Intercultural Relations (CEMRI/UAb)

Associate Professor of the Open University, Portugal, where she is teaching on Undergraduate and graduate program since 1995.
Scientific Coordinator of the Center for the Study of Migrations and Intercultural Relations, CEMRI, UAb, FCT.
Researcher Coordinator of the Research Group, Health, Culture and Development, CEMRI/UAb.
Member of the Scientific Committee and the coordination of the doctorate in Intercultural Relations, DRI, Open University.
Visiting Professor at various foreign universities, (France, Italy, Spain, Romania, Brazil, China). Psychologist.
PhD and post-PhD in Psychology, Clinical Psychology and Intercultural expertise, University Paris V, France. Degree in Psychology, Coimbra University.
Coordinated and supervised about two hundred national and international research projects and Masters, Doctoral and Post-doctoral research in the fields of Social and Human Sciences and Health.
Author and co-author, since 1981, of more four hundred papers and lectures in conferences and seminars in Portugal and foreigner, in the fields of social sciences and Humanities, Health Sciences, Communication and Education.
Author and co-author, since 1983, of more than two hundred scientific publications (Portugal, France, Spain, Brazil, Romania, USA, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay, China, USA, Colombia) on psychosocial, intercultural, migratory, communicational, methodological, intergenerational, educational, clinical and health issues.
Author and Director of three dozen ethnopsychological scientific films dedicated to the children and families of migrants from diverse cultures and ethnic-cultural minorities (Gypsies and indigenous), held amid institutional family and in different countries (Portugal, France, Italy, Romania, Brazil) and intercultural education.
Organizer and co-organizer of more than a hundred conferences, seminars, symposiums and international conferences held in Portugal and foreigner.
Member of the Scientific Committee and Editorial of more a dozen national and international journals in the field of social sciences and humanities.

Published

31-08-2023

How to Cite

SAMPAIO, C.; RAMOS, N. Women’s health access in the context of forced migration in Portugal: vulnerabilities and adaptation. Revista Ciência Plural, [S. l.], v. 9, n. 2, p. 1–17, 2023. DOI: 10.21680/2446-7286.2023v9n2ID31928. Disponível em: https://periodicos.ufrn.br/rcp/article/view/31928. Acesso em: 25 nov. 2024.