Feminising the Healthy Migrant Effect: inequities and practices in the reproductive health of ethnic migrant women in Aotearoa New Zealand
Despite the perceptible feminisation of migration globally and in New Zealand, there remains a noticeable absence of a gendered perspective of the Healthy Migrant Effect (HME). In this paper, we seek to articulate a critical perspective on ethnic and migrant women’s reproductive health deploying two...
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| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Taylor & Francis Group
2025-07-01
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| Series: | Kōtuitui |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/1177083X.2024.2412114 |
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| Summary: | Despite the perceptible feminisation of migration globally and in New Zealand, there remains a noticeable absence of a gendered perspective of the Healthy Migrant Effect (HME). In this paper, we seek to articulate a critical perspective on ethnic and migrant women’s reproductive health deploying two established bodies of scholarship, the Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) and Social Practices theory. While the former highlights gender-specific structural barriers and inequities, the latter refers to the routinised everyday behaviours and habits built around shared cultural and social meanings. The data for the study is drawn from thirty-one interviews with reproductive health practitioners and ethnic migrant parents of young children. The analyses point to an array of influences on migrant women’s reproductive health decisions including inequitable access, cultural traditions and practices, as well as the inability to exercise the reproductive choices that many skilled migrant women were accustomed to in their home countries. Overall, the paper critiques the focus on socio-economic status within HME theory as a reason for sub-optimal reproductive health outcomes – for ethnic migrant women, the broader canvas of societal factors includes gendered values, structures, and norms. |
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| ISSN: | 1177-083X |