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AbstractThis article investigates how mental health counsellors on helplines in Sweden deal with racism from callers who self‐categorise as non‐racialised. Previous studies have identified racism as a problem in health care interactions, but there is limited knowledge about the features of racialised talk and how staff respond. In this study, we use conversation analysis and membership categorisation analysis to examine racialised talk in 17 audiorecorded calls, a subset of 458 calls to suicide preventive helplines. The analysis shows that racialisation functions as a resource for callers to make sense of their mental health difficulties. This speaks to the complexity of responding to racism in a mental health setting, as counsellors must see to callers' needs, and calling out racialised talk may alienate callers. Call‐takers manage this problem in three ways: (1) questioning racialised talk, (2) supporting the callers' stance in a way that makes it ambiguous if call‐takers are coproducing racism or affiliating with callers' lives being difficult and (3) supporting callers' problems as mental health issues while resisting a potentially racist trajectory. The study offers direct insight into the workings of racism in health care and how practitioners can balance health care users' needs for support with an antiracist position.

While regularly applied to globalized migration, conceptualizations of hospitality have rarely been used to understand healthcare settings. Drawing on interviews with healthcare staff in Sweden, our article contributes to the current conceptualization of hospitality accounting for: the internal contradictions of hospitality that racialized staff experience in their everyday interactions with patients and other staff; the shifting boundaries between host and guest in everyday healthcare practices, especially when examined through the lens of racialization and finally; the subtle though troubled coexistence of hostility and un(conditional) hospitality that weakens resistance against racism. The analysis maps the complex contingencies of professional, ethnic and national relations between staff and patients, in light of their racialized and gendered nature, to suggest that the ambivalences theorized as part of the concept of hospitality show how the hurts of racism are so hard to pinpoint.

Background: Racism is difficult to discuss in the context of Swedish healthcare for various cultural and administrative reasons. Herein, we interpret the fragmentary nature of the evidence of racialising processes and the difficulty of reporting racist discrimination in terms of structural violence. Methods: In response to the unspeakable nature of racism in Swedish healthcare, we propose a phased participatory process to build a common vocabulary and grammar through a consultative framework involving healthcare providers and service users as well as policy-makers. These stakeholders will be involved in an educational intervention to facilitate discussion around and avoidance of racism in service provision. Discussion: Both the participatory process and outcomes of the process, e.g. educational interventions, will contribute to the social and political conversation about racism in healthcare settings. Creating new ways of discussing sensitive topics allows ameliorative actions to be taken, benefitting healthcare providers and users. The urgency of the project is underlined.

This paper describes the difficulties of researching racism in healthcare contexts as part of the wider issue of neoliberal reforms in welfare states in the age of global migration. In trying to understand the contradiction of a phenomenon that is historical and strongly felt by individuals and yet widely denied by both institutions and individuals, we consider the current political and socioeconomic context of healthcare provision. Despite decades of legislation against racism, its presence persists in healthcare settings, but data on these experiences is rarely gathered in Europe. National systems of healthcare provision have been subject to neoliberal reforms, where among others, cheaper forms of labor are sought to reduce the cost of producing healthcare, while the availability of services is rationed to contain demand. The restriction both on provision of and access to welfare, including healthcare, is unpopular among national populations. However, the explanations for restricted access to healthcare are assumed to be located outside the national context with immigrants being blamed. Even as migrants are used as a source of cheap labor in healthcare and other welfare sectors, the arrival of immigrants has been held responsible for restricted access to healthcare and welfare in general. One implication of (im)migration being blamed for healthcare restrictions, while racism is held to be a problem of the past, is the silencing of experiences of racism, which has dire consequences for ethnic minority populations. The implications of racism as a form of inequality within healthcare and the circumstances of researching racism in healthcare and its implication for the sociology of health in Sweden are described.

This paper describes the difficulties of researching racism in healthcare contexts as part of the wider issue of neoliberal reforms in welfare states in the age of global migration. In trying to understand the contradiction of a phenomenon that is historical and strongly felt by individuals and yet widely denied by both institutions and individuals, we consider the current political and socioeconomic context of healthcare provision. Despite decades of legislation against racism, its presence persists in healthcare settings, but data on these experiences is rarely gathered in Europe. National systems of healthcare provision have been subject to neoliberal reforms, where among others, cheaper forms of labor are sought to reduce the cost of producing healthcare, while the availability of services is rationed to contain demand. The restriction both on provision of and access to welfare, including healthcare, is unpopular among national populations. However, the explanations for restricted access to healthcare are assumed to be located outside the national context with immigrants being blamed. Even as migrants are used as a source of cheap labor in healthcare and other welfare sectors, the arrival of immigrants has been held responsible for restricted access to healthcare and welfare in general. One implication of (im)migration being blamed for healthcare restrictions, while racism is held to be a problem of the past, is the silencing of experiences of racism, which has dire consequences for ethnic minority populations. The implications of racism as a form of inequality within healthcare and the circumstances of researching racism in healthcare and its implication for the sociology of health in Sweden are described.

Background There is increasing attention paid to the arrival of migrants from outwith the EU region to the European countries. Healthcare that is universally and equably accessible needs to be provided for these migrants throughout the range of national contexts and in response to complex and evolving individual needs. It is important to look at the evidence available on provision and access to healthcare for migrants to identify barriers to accessing healthcare and better plan necessary changes. Methods This review scoped 77 papers from nine European countries (Austria, Cyprus, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Malta, Spain, and Sweden) in English and in country-specific languages in order to provide an overview of migrants' access to healthcare. The review aims at identifying what is known about access to healthcare as well as healthcare use of migrants and refugees in the EU member states. The evidence included documents from 2011 onwards. Results The literature reviewed confirms that despite the aspiration to ensure equality of access to healthcare, there is evidence of persistent inequalities between migrants and non-migrants in access to healthcare services. The evidence shows unmet healthcare needs, especially when it comes to mental and dental health as well as the existence of legal barriers in accessing healthcare. Language and communication barriers, overuse of emergency services and underuse of primary healthcare services as well as discrimination are described. Conclusions The European situation concerning migrants' and refugees' health status and access to healthcare is heterogeneous and it is difficult to compare and draw any firm conclusions due to the scant evidence. Different diseases are prioritised by different countries, although these priorities do not always correspond to the expressed needs or priorities of the migrants. Mental healthcare, preventive care (immunization) and long-term care in the presence of a growing migrant older population are identified as priorities that deserve greater attention. There is a need to improve the existing data on migrants' health status, needs and access to healthcare to be able to tailor care to the needs of migrants. To conduct research that highlights migrants' own views on their health and barriers to access to healthcare is key.