Medicalization and international migration: protection of rights and health practices at border control

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the impacts of medicalization at border control, identifying possible implications for medical practice and international migrants’ rights. For this purpose, it studies HIV-related restrictions imposed by Canada’s immigration law. As for the methodology, the research is bibliographical and documental. Concerning methodological procedures, the paper draws on the reading and analysis of published materials on the subject, such as books, academic articles and papers, along with the interpretation of information found in documents without analytical content (laws, statistical reports, etc), granting them importance as a source of analysis. The paper demonstrates that medicalization of border control obscures the determination of the efficacy of such restrictions as a means to protect the population, capable of justifying the sacrifice of HIV-positive migrants. Furthermore, it argues that the expansion of health professionals’ jurisdiction contributes to the therapeutical emptying of medical practices, centered around administrative routines to the detriment of the best interest of migrants/patients. Finally, the paper contends that medical discourses and practices enable the knowledge and production of the “healthy” migrant, able to cross states’ borders, which violate HIV-positive migrants’ rights.