Essere di utilità a chi? Salvaguardare che cosa? Riflessioni e sentimenti del lavoro antropologico nell’ambito della certificazione sanitaria per richiedenti asilo
Maria Concetta Segneri
The importance that health certification has acquired regarding evaluation of appeals for international protection is an example of the crisis that the right of asylum has been going through in Europe for several years now. In such a context, health is used to limit access to asylum and to postpone an assumption of necessary political responsibility. The questions posed by the author, who is involved in the production of these certifications, are illustrated using the anthropological consultations carried out in 2017 in a health centre in Rome; specifically three cases of Nigerian young people are reported, who were selected because this population encounters severe difficulties with recognition of international protection. We still do not understand the actual consequences that these certifications have in the evaluation of appeals for protection; nevertheless, health operators are led by their ethics to realise what they could be. Conversely, sticking to this bureaucratic procedure does not help us to restore value to the right of asylum; on the contrary, it perpetuates the powerful device created to impoverish it. The author questions these contradictions, illustrating their professional and personal implications.
Keywords
Applicants for international protection, health certification, medical anthropology.