Paper short abstract:

This paper considers the maternal healthcare experiences and help seeking behaviours among migrant women,and argues that in the context of migration, women’s reproductive life and maternal health is found contested in the politics of the nation State.

Paper long abstract:

In South Africa foreign migrants - legal, illegal and asylum seekers face xenophobia, and xenophobic attitude on a daily basis. Their stories dominate the media, and there is substantial debate on migrants and their health and wellbeing. All this occurs around popular perceptions that foreign migrants are placing an extra burden on national resources and local municipalities planning in South Africa. Research suggests that both internal and cross border migrants face numerous challenges in accessing healthcare during antenatal care and child birth in public healthcare facilities. However, foreign migrants in most cases face the greatest discrimination due to their position in the host society. Drawing from research conducted during my Masters work and preliminary fieldwork on my PhD work in inner-city Johannesburg, this paper seeks to explore the lived experiences and help-seeking behaviours of migrant women during pregnancy and child birth, as a way of giving insight on the migrant healthcare crisis in Southern Africa. The narratives documented from in-depth interviews, field notes and observations with cross border Zimbabwean women and internal migrant women reflect struggles by Governments in the region to provide healthcare for their citizens and migrants. They also demonstrate how in most cases migration is problematized through health and vice versa. Yet, as the paper will show, despite the challenges faced migrants have devised ways of maneuvering the healthcare system by also relying on churches for divine prayers and explanation and also consulting private doctors to be certain of the services from the public healthcare facilities.