Following the last two waves of European enlargement, east-west European migration was perceived as posing significant challenges at policy and societal levels. In particular, both host and origin countries raised the issue of the burden East European migrants might represent for their health and welfare systems. This paper addresses the question of EE migrants’ use of health care systems in host and origin countries by placing it in the context of migrants’ transnational health care practices in their entirety. This means taking into account both formal and informal practices, and therefore including among them the use of healthcare services in the host and origin countries, but also of resources available inside transnational groups (families, religious, folk and alternative healers, etc.).
Taking the case of Romanian migrants in Ireland, the study investigates transnational practices which address migrants’ need for both physical and psychological health. Since Romania’s entrance into the EU in 2007, large numbers of Romanian migrants joined the Irish labour force mostly in the construction and domestic services sectors, all the while as they were perceived as being one of the most threatening migrant groups, in terms of their impact on Ireland’s social and healthcare services. The study thus offers a privileged window into two important issues: 1) the manner in which migrants’ transnational healthcare practices contribute to the transformation of host and origin countries’ social landscape; and 2) the impact European integration has on health care services in both host countries and in countries of origin. The study adopts an encompassing perspective that sees access to healthcare services as a constitutive part of both social positioning and social citizenship. Moreover, in order to deal with trans-national practices in a holistic perspective, the study is based on multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork in both Romania and Ireland. The paper argues that Romanian migrants’ transnational healthcare practices function as migrant strategies of social mobility, while also contributing to the increasing marketisation of healthcare services across Europe.