Migration, informal employment, and childhood disability: a study of prejudice and barriers to healthcare access in a community center in Buenos Aires

Abstract

This article analyses the experiences of health and childhood disability of migrant women from working-class backgrounds in a rehabilitation centre in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. Using an ethnographic approach based on participant observation and interviews, the study explores how disability is experienced and given meaning within migration trajectories shaped by labor precariousness and dependence on the public health system. The findings show that disability is not configured as a central concern for families, but rather as a pragmatic category linked to access to rights and resources. The analysis also reveals tensions between the formal recognition of the right to health and the concrete conditions of access to and continuity of care, as well as the presence of ethnic prejudices in professional practices. The article critically reflects on the role of the State in the production of health inequalities.