Navigating Healthcare and Institutional Barriers, Among Migrant Women in Denmark in Contexts of Vulnerability and Gender-Based Violence
Author
Vazquez, Florencia
Term
4. semester
Education
Publication year
2026
Submitted on
2026-05-29
Abstract
This thesis examines how Argentine migrant women in Denmark navigate the Danish healthcare system when seeking mental health support in situations marked by vulnerability and gender-based violence. Grounded in a critical social constructivist approach, it analyses women’s experiences as shaped by structural conditions such as migration status, language barriers, insecure residence, patriarchal power relations, and the institutional organization of the welfare state. Empirically, the study relies on qualitative methods: five in-depth semi-structured interviews with Argentine women, document analysis of internal materials from the feminist migrant organization La Grupa, two supplementary case files involving Latin American women, and participant observation within the organization. Drawing on theories of structural violence, institutional power, biopolitics, patriarchy and a transversal intersectional lens, the thesis shows how the ostensibly universal welfare system operates as a bureaucratic labyrinth characterized by long waiting lists, complex procedures and invisible institutional barriers. Mechanisms such as immigration surveillance, the medicalization of psychological distress and administrative entrapment are described as law-maintaining violence that reproduces exclusion, particularly for women experiencing gender-based violence. At the same time, the analysis highlights that Argentine migrant women actively develop strategies to manage their mental health and circumvent gaps in access, notably through transnational care networks and horizontal peer-support structures within La Grupa. In doing so, they move from being positioned as passive victims to becoming active political subjects who produce collective forms of care and challenge dominant understandings of health and institutional support.
Denne speciale undersøger, hvordan argentinske migrantkvinder i Danmark navigerer det danske sundhedssystem, når de søger psykosocial støtte i situationer præget af sårbarhed og kønsbaseret vold. Med udgangspunkt i kritisk social konstruktivisme analyseres kvindernes erfaringer som formet af strukturelle forhold, herunder migrationsstatus, sproglige barrierer, usikker opholdsret, patriarkalske magtstrukturer og den institutionelle organisering af velfærdsstaten. Empirisk bygger studiet på kvalitative metoder: fem dybdegående semistrukturerede interviews med argentinske kvinder, dokumentanalyse af interne materialer fra den feministiske migrantorganisation La Grupa samt to supplerende cases om latinamerikanske kvinder og deltagerobservation i organisationen. Gennem teorier om strukturel vold, institutionel magt, biopolitik, patriarki og et transversalt intersektionelt perspektiv afdækker afhandlingen, hvordan det formelt universelle velfærdssystem fungerer som et bureaukratisk labyrint med lange ventelister, kompleks sagsbehandling og usynlige institutionelle barrierer. Mekanismer som immigrationskontrol, medikalisering af psykisk mistrivsel og administrativ fastholdelse beskrives som lovopretholdende vold, der reproducerer eksklusion, særligt for kvinder i voldelige relationer. Samtidig viser analysen, at argentinske migrantkvinder aktivt udvikler strategier til at håndtere deres mentale sundhed og omgå systemets begrænsninger, blandt andet gennem transnationale omsorgsnetværk og horisontale peer-support fællesskaber i La Grupa. Dermed bevæger de sig fra en position som passive ofre til handlende politiske subjekter, som skaber kollektive omsorgsformer og udfordrer den dominerende forståelse af sundhed og institutionel hjælp.
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