Who is (un)deserving? Differential healthcare access and the interplay between social and symbolic boundary-drawing towards Syrian refugees in Turkey

Abstract

Although the degree to which social services should be extended to migrant groups by the state has occupied migration and welfare scholars’ agenda for a long time, how perceptions of deservingness on migrant groups’ social welfare entitlements can show a constraining character and rigidify boundaries have not yet received the full attention it deserves. Based on a qualitative case study with Turkish citizens in Adana, this paper explores how differential policies on healthcare access can shape insiders’ narratives on outsiders and grounds for social and symbolic boundaries; and how boundary work interacts with insiders’ perceptions of welfare deservingness. The findings indicate that, facing unequal access to healthcare, host society members define institutionalised worthiness between Turkish citizens and Syrian refugees. The mobilisation of institutional worthiness with regards to differential healthcare access, therefore, not only forges host society members’ perspectives towards Syrians, but also the degree of deservingness regarding who contributes more to the national well-being and who deserves more benefits.