Publication year: 2011
Source: Social Science & Medicine, In Press, Accepted Manuscript, Available online 23 August 2011
Nora, Gottlieb , Dani, Filc , Nadav, Davidovitch
In the context of neo-liberal retrenchments humanitarian NGOs have become alternative healthcare providers that partially fill the vacuum left by the welfare state’s withdrawal from the provision of services to migrants and other marginalized populations. In many cases they thus help to build legitimacy for the state’s retreat from social responsibilities. Human rights organizations play an important role in advocating for migrants’ rights, but in many cases they represent a legalistic and individualized conceptualization of the right to health that limits their claims for social justice. This paper analyzes the interactions and tensions between the discourses of medical humanitarianism, human…
Highlights: ► Our case-study on an Israeli “Open Clinic” provides insides into the role of NGOs involved with migrants’ health rights. ►·It shows how structures of citizenship and neo-liberalization frame migrants’ “deservingness” and NGOs’ scope of actions. ► It illustrates NGOs’ challenge to negotiate variegated roles – humanitarian, political, legitimizing, symbolic, empowering, organizational. ► It adds to the discussion on tensions between medical humanitarianism, human rights and political advocacy. ► It thus contributes to an analysis of “the right to health” and the shapes it takes in NGOs’ discourses and practices.