Document Details

Reproductive Health for Resettling Refugee and Migrant Women?

The negotiation of reproductive rights for refugee and migrant women is complicated by the experiences of displacement and migration. Notions of community, family and authorities, and rules of access to resources, are in constant flux and may differ from the traditional systems that migrant or resettling refugee women are familiar with. This article presents the qualitative findings of a three-year study focusing on the reproductive health of African and Middle Eastern refugee and migrant women resettled in Victoria. The issues discussed include women’s problems of engaging with reproductive health services that they perceive as hostile and unforgiving of cultural differences, their difficulties in accessing family planning services, and the complications of addressing reproductive rights in rapidly evolving power relations within families and communities.

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Subject: Cultural diversity Women's health

Journal edition: Edition 78

Date published: 01/03/2004