1 School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel.
2 Department of Education, Tel-Hai College, Galilee, Israel.
Int J Health Serv. 2018 Oct;48(4):776-797. doi: 10.1177/0020731418783912. Epub 2018 Jun 28.
Family unification received public and political attention following recent global immigration crises, though less within health research. In Israel, under the Family Reunification Order, about 20,000 Palestinian women from the Occupied Palestinian Territories are denied residency and the right to universal health care services (HSC) after marrying Palestinian citizens and moving to Israel. To better understand the relationship between lacking residency and barriers to accessing HCS, we conducted in-depth interviews with 21 Palestinian women (ages 22-59) denied family unification. Our findings revealed that in addition to hindering access to HCS, lacking residency intersects with other political, social, and economic determinants of these women's health and disrupts normal family life. Lacking residency intensifies poverty (via private health insurance and legal fees, permit extensions) and leads to family separations and risky crossings at military checkpoints into the West Bank for medical treatment. Restrictions on freedom of movement engender fear of deportation and precarity. Denial of residency also exacerbates gender inequality (increased dependence on husbands) and can endanger child custody when mothers' lack of residency passes to children, violating children's basic rights. Allowing family unification to Palestinian women would remove barriers to HCS access, allow normal family life, and permit social integration.
家庭团聚在最近的全球移民危机后受到了公众和政治的关注，但在健康研究领域关注较少。在以色列，根据家庭团聚令，大约 2 万名来自被占领的巴勒斯坦领土的巴勒斯坦妇女在与巴勒斯坦公民结婚并移居以色列后，被剥夺了居住权和享受全民健康保障服务（HSC）的权利。为了更好地理解缺乏居住权与获取 HCS 障碍之间的关系，我们对 21 名被拒绝家庭团聚的巴勒斯坦妇女（年龄在 22-59 岁之间）进行了深入访谈。我们的研究结果表明，除了阻碍 HCS 的获取外，缺乏居住权还与这些妇女健康的其他政治、社会和经济决定因素相交织，并扰乱了正常的家庭生活。缺乏居住权加剧了贫困（通过私人医疗保险和法律费用、许可证延期），导致家庭分离，并在前往约旦河西岸就医时冒着在军事检查站穿越的风险。行动自由的限制引发了对驱逐和不稳定的恐惧。拒绝居住权也加剧了性别不平等（对丈夫的依赖增加），当母亲缺乏居住权传递给孩子时，可能会危及孩子的监护权，侵犯了孩子的基本权利。允许巴勒斯坦妇女家庭团聚将消除获取 HCS 的障碍，允许正常的家庭生活，并允许社会融合。
