Emergency Care Between State and Civil Society: The Open Clinic for Irregular Migrants

This chapter explores complex regulations that condition the limited access to healthcare services of irregular migrants, regulations that can be termed ‘internal bordering mechanisms’. It explains an ‘open’ health clinic established in Denmark to care for the health needs of irregular migrants; it pays particular attention to the complex relationship of the clinic with the official healthcare system. In 2011, an ‘open’ emergency clinic was established in Copenhagen to care for the unmet healthcare needs of irregular migrants. The clinic was established by three organizations: the Danish Red Cross, the Danish Medical Association, and the Danish Refugee Council. Irregular migrants who work in the unofficial economy and live ‘underground’ without contact with the official Danish welfare state are thus included in the economic circuit but excluded from ordinary social and civil rights. While irregular migrants are largely excluded from the ordinary economic, legal, political, and educational systems of society, the clinic constitutes as space of inclusion in the healthcare system.