Accoucher à Melilla. Les pratiques médicales à l’épreuve des « parturientes sans droits » à la frontière hispano-marocaine
Abstract
This article analyzes differential care in perinatal health based on an ethnographic survey carried out on the Spanish-Moroccan border of Melilla. The geopolitical context brings together conditions conducive to processes of social categorization and inequalities of health care, especially for those considered non-legitimate to benefit from health care services in the city. Discourses on the harm caused by the arrival of pregnant Moroccan women without any medical follow-up describe an institution that lacks the necessary tools to deal with the vicissitudes of its situation. Two years of fieldwork in the enclave’s maternity hospital highlighted the tensions between local and central authorities, which reflect medical practices that would be inconceivable in any other context. Foreign women giving birth here is experienced as a threat, just like those of Melillan women who share a common characteristic with them: ethnicity. Discrimination in medical practices is a way of defending the institution and the "Spanishness" of the enclave, while reinforcing the vulnerability of some of the professionals and users.
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