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Paper short abstract

Limited access of migrants to healthcare will be analyzed in the framework of immunitarian politics. The case studies of Colombians and Ukrainians recently arrived to Poland will serve to showcase exclusionary policies, discourses and practices in healthcare resulting mainly from political shifts.

Paper long abstract

The paper will apply the concept of immunitarian politics to the analysis of the position of migrants in Poland, and in particularly their access the healthcare. I argue that reactionary politics of the right-wing government after 2015, political shift to the right and increasing populism has led to the exclusionary policies, discourses and practices in healthcare. If general access to healthcare can be seen as an expression of communitarian values (e.g. resulting from human rights, see: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights), it is inspiring to see exclusions and limitations in the framework of immunitarian politics.

The first ethnographic case analyzed in this framework includes recent arrival of Colombian economic migrants, who were invited to Poland by employment agencies, and offered contracts of substandard character with very limited or no access to healthcare. The second case concerns Ukrainian war refugees residing in Poland since 2022 who had access to healthcare within temporary protection schemes, which partly ends in March 2026. In particular I will analyze governmental policies and discourses justifying these exclusions, as well as local practices experienced by migrants from both groups. The concept of immunitarian politics will relate to development of xenophobia, anti-migrant backlash and exclusion, looping from top-down and bottom-up.