Paper long abstract:

This paper analyses unequal structures of health care in Germany, grappling with the question: "If access to health care is considered a human right, who is considered human enough to have that right?" (Farmer 2005: 206). Based on my field work with undocumented Latino migrants and care givers in Berlin, I state a trend in German national and local politics to favor "humanitarian aid" over the human right to equal access to health care. NGOs establish parallel structures of health care for undocumented migrants, supported by policy makers. These structures, however, can only provide selective treatment, as I will show, and reinforce a stratified system of care based on the notion of who is "human enough" to receive full medical treatment - and who is not. Within this system, undocumented migrants are perceived and constructed as undeserving patients, thereby a "limited and limiting notion of humanity" (Ticktin 2006: 42) is promoted.