Description
This paper will investigate refugee women’s access to maternal care in Türkiye which requires a multi-layered policy approach to refugees’ right to health. WHO’s Networks of Care Approach (NOC) takes a holistic approach to improve and facilitate a high level of maternal and perinatal care through an implementation of person-centred care with interconnected and collaborative networks of private and public healthcare facilities. An effective NOC becomes crucial for vulnerable populations such as refugee women and their access to maternal care in the host countries. The intersectionality adds another layer of complexity to the refugee women’s access to health care with their legal status, gender and culture becoming determinants of this fundamental right. The ecological model (Thurston and Vissadjee, 2005) offers an illustration of the complexities of interactions between maternal care, its determinants and outcomes. It allows us to analyse the interactions of networks through three stages: (1) micro-level (refugees, their interactions) (2) Meso-level (healthcare clinics, centres, community-level issues on health etc.) and (3) macro-level (state policies and international agencies’ regulations). According to the UNHCR, refugees with little means cannot return to their origin countries, thus, the governments ought to (re)design their policies in order to create pathways for integration. The first step for integration is to grant them fundamental rights including the right to health in the host countries. This research focuses on studying refugee women which entails an analysis of their access to maternal care with addressing the complexities due to their legal status. Thus, an effective healthcare provision can be possible for refugee women through bridging NOC and the ecological model in terms of illustrating the collaboration of state, non-state and private networks that facilitate healthcare for all women who need maternal care including refugee women. This paper will present preliminary findings from a literature review, official document analysis and fieldwork data in order to illustrate the healthcare networks in Türkiye in providing maternal care for refugee women.
