New book chapter: 'Harnessing "diasporic" medical mobilities'

A new book, Migration, Health and Inequality, edited by Felicity Thomas and Jasmine Gideon, is being released by Zed Books in January 2013. 

I've contributed a chapter to the book called 'Harnessing "diasporic" medical mobilities'. Arguing that migrant diasporas are increasingly pegged as the ‘natural’ markets for and ‘ambassadors’ to the world-class private health care increasingly available in their countries of origin, the chapter explores the pursuit and provision of health care by migrant populations ‘back home’, and examines the potential of healthcare to deepen their diasporic linkages with the countries of origin.

Here's the book's promotional blurb:
'Should migrants have the same rights as citizens to health care services? What do we mean by rights and by health? And how do we uphold such rights when diasporic networks provide a diversity of opportunities and constraints for people seeking to maintain or restore their health?

Answering these pressing questions, this book highlights recent developments in the areas of migration, human rights and health from a range of countries. Looking at diverse health issues, from HIV to reproductive and maternal health, and a variety of forms of migration, including asylum seeking, labour migration and trafficking, this timely volume exposes the factors that contribute to the vulnerability of different mobile groups as they seek to uphold their wellbeing.

Migration, Health and Inequality argues that we need to look beyond host country responses and biomedical frameworks and include both the role of transnational health networks and indigenous, popular or lay ideas about health when trying to understand why many migrants suffer from low levels of health relative to their host population. Offering a broad range of linkages between migrant agency, transnationalism and diaspora mechanisms, this unique collection also looks at the impact of migrant health on the health and rights of those communities that are left behind.'

New book: Medical Tourism: The Ethics, Regulation and Marketing of Health Mobility

Medical Tourism: The Ethics, Regulation and Marketing of Health Mobility (C.M. Hall, ed.) has been recently released through Routledge. I had the opportunity to contribute a chapter to the book: 'Claiming "Cultural Competence": The Promotion of Multi-ethnic Malaysia as a Medical Tourism Destination'. 

Book abstract

Medical and health tourism is a significant area of growth in the export of medical, health and tourism services. Although spas and improved well-being have long been part of the tourist experience, health tourism now includes travel for medical purposes ranging from cosmetic and dental surgery through to transplants and infertility treatment. Many countries including China, Cuba, Hungary, India, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore actively promote and compete for the medical tourist dollar, while many developed countries also provide niche private services. However, the field of medical tourism is increasingly being subject to scrutiny and debate, particularly as a result of concerns over regulatory, ethical and wider health issues.

Drawing on a range of theoretical and methodological perspectives, this book is one of the first to critically address the substantial political, philosophical and ethical issues that arise out of the transnational practices of medical tourism. Through a series of chapters the book engages with key issues such as the role of regulatory and policy structures in influencing medical and health tourism related mobilities. These issues are investigated by considering range of developing and developed countries, medical systems and health economic perspectives.

The book adopts a multi-layered perspective to not only investigate the business and marketing practices of medical and health tourism but places these within a broader framework of contemporary globalisation, policy and practice. By doing so it opens up debate of the ethical space in which medical and health tourism operates as well as reinforce the wide ranging perspectives that exist on the subject in both the public and academic imagination.

This significant contribution will be of interest to students, academics in tourism and medical policy, trade and economic development fields.