Deportability Status as Basis for Human Rights Claims: Irregularised Migrants’ Right to Health Care in Sweden

ABSTRACT

This article discusses the issue of the right to health care for irregularised migrants in Sweden, from a human rights perspective. An extended right to health care for irregularised migrants came into effect through a legislative amendment in 2013. By exploring the legislative process before the new Act on Health Care to Some Foreigners Who Reside In Sweden Without the Necessary Permits in 2013, we show how the Act uses ‘deportability’ as a legal category and basis for health care and why this is problematic. Our study reveals a variety of practices that reproduce inconsistencies entrenched in rights-mobilisation for non-citizens: separate legislations for different categories of persons, vague accounts of treaty-obligations, absence of discussions on liability, and shifting the responsibility of extending health care to the local government.