Different Systems, Similar Responses: Policy Reforms on Asylum-Seekers’ and Refugees’ Access to Healthcare in Germany and Sweden in the Wake of the 2015–17 ‘Migration Crisis’

Abstract

Who has – and who deserves – full or partial access to a state’s healthcare system? This question has become an issue of controversial political debate in many countries, not least in the context of recent crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic and, previously, the so-called ‘migration crisis’ of 2015–17. This chapter focuses on the latter crisis and its repercussions on the political regulation of healthcare access for a group at the very margins of society: asylum-seekers and refugees. By analysing recent asylum and health policy reforms in two main recipient countries in the EU, Germany and Sweden, the chapter sheds light on the intensifying level of politicisation of both health and incorporation policies in times of crisis.