Paper short abstract:

This paper explores how the pandemic shapes health perceptions among African migrants in Guangzhou, emphasizing their resilience against healthcare inequalities and navigation of inadequate healthcare through knowledge-making, alternative practices, and informal networks

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores how African migrants in Guangzhou, China, reinterpret and manage their health and lives in the post-pandemic era. Comprising primarily Muslim small-scale traders from West Africa, these migrants have grappled with China’s stringent immigration control and social discrimination since the early 2000s. The study delves into how these individuals negotiate, resist, and navigate China's public health requirements and build their lives during and after the pandemic. It unpacks their daily experiences, moving from mistreatment at the onset of the pandemic to enduring strict confinement measures. In the current post-pandemic era, characterized by government neglect and indifference, African migrants—lacking formal health resources as immigrants—rely heavily on their informal networks, both locally and transnationally. The paper further examines how these experiences shape African migrants' perceptions of health as they pursue their dreams and build their future lives. Highlighting the resilient subjectivity of African migrants, this study showcases their resistance to healthcare inequalities and their adept navigation of inadequate healthcare infrastructure through knowledge-making and alternative healthcare practices. Ethnographic data for this study is derived from ongoing anthropological fieldwork conducted from April to August 2023 and February to April 2024.