Constructing im/migrants and ethnic minority groups as ‘carriers of disease’: Power effects of categorization practices in tuberculosis health reporting in the UK and Germany

Migration- and ethnicity-related categories are a core feature of public health systems internationally, particularly in health reporting on communicable infectious diseases. The specific categories and classifications used differ from country to country and are subject to controversy and change. Th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Ethnicities 2019-06, Vol.19 (3), p.518-534
Main Authors: von Unger, Hella, Scott, Penelope, Odukoya, Dennis
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Classification
Community involvement
Disease
Epidemiology
Ethnicity
Health problems
Health services
Human rights
Migrants
Migration
Minority & ethnic groups
Minority groups
Otherness
Participation
Public health
Racialization
Tuberculosis
Vulnerability
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Summary:Migration- and ethnicity-related categories are a core feature of public health systems internationally, particularly in health reporting on communicable infectious diseases. The specific categories and classifications used differ from country to country and are subject to controversy and change. The article compares categorization practices in health reporting in the UK and Germany with regard to tuberculosis. Tuberculosis has been framed as a ‘migrants’ disease’ in recent decades and new categories were introduced to collect and report epidemiological data. We reconstruct the genesis, change and power effects of categories related to im/migrants and ethnic minority groups. In both countries, migration-related categorizations entail constructions of im/migrants as ‘carriers of disease’. However, the categories also connect with discourses on human rights, prevention, treatment and care for migrants as vulnerable groups. While this ambivalent role of migration-related categories is not unique to health statistics, the potential contribution to processes of ‘othering’ and politics of exclusion seem particularly imminent in the context of communicable diseases such as tuberculosis. Ethnicity categories used in the UK, but not in Germany, also contribute to othering through racialization and culturalization, yet at the same time provide opportunities for community participation in the discourse.
ISSN:1468-7968
1741-2706
DOI:10.1177/1468796819833426