Abstract
This chapter provides a contemporary overview of research on children and young people’s use of mobility to obtain health services. By conceptualizing mobility as a social practice, the chapter highlights the importance of understanding the subjective qualities of being mobile, manifested through the lived experiences of children (and their families) who need to seek medical services away from home. Using examples from Kenya, Ghana, the US, and Argentina, this chapter shows how concepts such as “micro-mobility” and “vulnerable mobility” can be used to understand the internal and everyday dynamics of children’s and young people’s health-seeking behaviors without disregarding the structural (often internationalized) forces that shape their movements. In this manner, child movement is acknowledged on a global scale yet rooted in local realities. The chapter ends with a short research agenda where future streams of multidisciplinary and applied work are proposed.
References
Agee, B., Funkhouser, E., Roseman, J., Fawal, H., Holmberg, S., & Vermund, S. (2006). Migration patterns following HIV diagnosis among adults residing in the nonurban Deep South. AIDS Care, 18(1), S51–S58.
Ansell, N. (2009). Childhood and the politics of scale: Descaling children’s geographies? Progress in Human Geography, 33(2), 190–209.
Asiedu Owusu, S., & Amoako-Sakyi, R. O. (2011). Mobility and economic constraints as key barriers to children’s health seeking in Ghana. SBHA, 76(1), 91–105.
Baerenholdt, J., Haldrup, M., Larsen, J., & Urry, J. (2004). Performing tourist places. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Benson, M. (2011). The movement beyond (lifestyle) migration: Mobile practices and the constitution of a better way of life. Mobilities, 6(2), 221–235.
Bhabha, J. (2009). Arendt’s children: Do today’s migrant children have a right to rights? Human Right Quarterly, 31(2), 410–451.
Bluebond-Langer, M., & Korbin, J. E. (2007). Challenges and opportunities in the anthropology of childhoods: An introduction to “children, childhoods, and childhood studies”. American Anthropologist, 109(2), 241–246.
Bose, N. (2011). Away alone: Unaccompanied children find shelter after fleeing Libya. UNHCR. http://www.unhcr.org/4e0099c79d.html. Accessed 20 May 2014.
Buscher, M. (2006). Vision in motion. Environment and Planning A, 38(2), 281–299.
Buscher, M., & Urry, J. (2009). Mobile methods and the empirical. European Journal of Social Theory, 12(1), 99–116.
Cham, M., Sundby, J., & Vangen, S. (2005). Maternal mortality in the rural Gambia, a qualitative study on access to emergency obstetric care. Reproductive Health, 2, 3. doi:10.1186/1742-4755-2-3.
Chetail, V., & Bauloz, C. (2014). Research handbook on international law and migration. Northampton: Edward Elgar Publishing.
Crom, D. (1995). The experience of South American mothers who have a child being treated for malignancy in the United States. Journal of Pediatric Oncology Nursing, 12(3), 104–112.
Culley, L., Hudson, N., Baldwin, K., & Lakhanpaul, M. (2013). Children travelling for treatment: What we don’t know. Archives of Disease in Childhood, 98, 442–444.
Cummins, S., Curtis, S., Diez-Roux, A. V., & Macintyre, S. (2007). Understanding and representing ‘place’ in health research: A relational approach. Social Science & Medicine, 65, 1825–1838.
D’ Andrea, A., Ciolfi, L., & Gray, B. (2011). Methodological challenges and innovations in mobilities research. Mobilities, 6(2), 149–160.
Dobson, M. E. (2009). Unpacking children in migration research. Children’s Geographies, 7(3), 355–360.
Du Bois, W., & Wright, R. D. (2001). Applying sociology: Making a better world. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Ellis, M., & Muschkin, C. (1996). Migration of persons with AIDS- a search for support from elderly parents? Social Science and Medicine, 43(7), 1109–1118.
Elmore, K. (2006). The migratory experiences of people with HIV/AIDS (PWHA) in Wilmington, North Carolina. Health and Place, 12(4), 570–579.
Ensor, T., & Cooper, S. (2004). Overcoming barriers to health service access: Influencing the demand side. Health Policy and Planning, 19(2), 69–79.
Ervin, A. E. (2005). Applied anthropology: Tools and perspectives for contemporary practice. Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon.
Fatusi, A., & Hindin, M. (2010). Adolescents and youth in developing countries: Health and development issues in context. Journal of Adolescence, 33, 499–508.
Geissler, P. W., Nokes, K., Prince, R. J., Acieng’ Odhiambo, R., Aaagaard-Hansen, J., & Ouma, J. H. (2000). Children and medicines: Self-treatment of common illnesses among Luo schoolchildren in Western Kenya. Social Science and Medicine, 50(12), 1771–1783.
Geissler, P. W., Meinert, L., Prince, R. J., Nokes, C., Aaagaard-Hansen, J., Jitta, J., et al. (2001). Self-treatment by Kenyan and Ugandan schoolchildren and the need for school-based education. Health Policy and Planning, 16(4), 362–371.
Gutierrez, A., & Minuto, D. (2006). Una aproximacion metodologica al estudio de lugares con movilidad vulnerable. Geografando-Revista do Laboratorio de Cartografia e Estudos Ambientais, Pelotas, 1(2), 9–26.
Gutierrez, A. (2008). Geografia, transporte y movilidad. Espacios, 37, 100–107.
Gutierrez, A. (2012). Que es la movilidad? Elementos para reconstruir las definiciones basicas del campo del transporte. Bitacora, 21(2), 61–74.
Hampshire, K. R., Porter, G., Asiedu Owusu, S., Tanle, A., & Abane, A. (2011). Out of the reach of children? Young people’s health-seeking practices and agency in Africa’s newly-emerging therapeutic landscapes. Social Science and Medicine, 73, 702–710.
Hirshfeld, L. A. (2002). Why don’t anthropologists like children? American Anthropologist, 104(2), 611–627.
James, A. (2007). Giving voice to children’s voices: Practices and problems, pitfalls and potentials. American Anthropologist, 109(2), 261–272.
Johnson, G. A., Pfister, A. E., & Vindrola-Padros, C. (2012). Drawings, photos, and performances: Using visual methods with children. Visual Anthropology Review, 28(2), 165–179.
Johnson, G. A., & Vindrola-Padros, C. (2014). ‘It’s for the best’: Child movement in search of health in Njabini, Kenya. Children’s Geographies, 12(2), 219–231.
Kagan, M. (2011). Shared responsibility in a new Egypt: A strategy for refugee protection. School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, Center for Migration and Refugee Studies. The American University in Cairo. http://www.aucegypt.edu/GAPP/cmrs/reports/Documents/KaganRefugeePolicyEgypt1109.pdf. Accessed 20 May 2014.
Kangas, B. (2010). The burden of pursuing treatment abroad: Three stories of medical travelers from Yemen. Global Soc Pol, 10(3), 306–314.
Kangas, B. (2011). Complicating common ideas about medical tourism: Gender, class, and globality in Yemeni’s international medical travel. Signs, 36(2), 327–332.
Kaufmann, V. (2011). Rethinking the city: Urban dynamics and motility. Oxford, UK: Routledge.
Kedia, S., & Van Willigen, J. (2005). Applied anthropology: Domains of application. Westport: Greenwood Publishing.
Kenyon, S. (2006). Reshaping patterns of mobility and exclusion? The impact of virtual mobility upon accessibility, mobility and social exclusion. In M. Sheller & J. Urry (Eds.), Mobile technologies of the city. London: Routledge.
Knodel, J., Watkins, S., & VanLandingham, M. (2003). AIDS and older persons: An international perspective. Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes and Human Retrovirology, 33(S2), S153–S165.
Knodel, J., & Van Landingham, M. (2003). Return migration in the context of parental assistance in the AIDS Epidemic: The Thai experience. Social Science and Medicine, 57(2), 327–342.
Lancy, D. F. (2009). The anthropology of childhood: Cherubs, chattel, changelings. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Laurier, E., et al. (2008). Driving and “passengering”: Notes on the ordinary organization of car travel. Mobilities, 3, 1–23.
Lieb, S., Trepka, M. J., Liberti, T., Cohen, L., & Romero, J. (2006). HIV/AIDS patients who move to urban Florida counties following a diagnosis of HIV: Predictors and implications for HIV prevention. Journal of Urban Health: Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine, 83(6), 1158–1167.
Lombrail, P. (1999). À propos de liens entre santé et migration. Sciences Sociales et Santé, 17(4), 37–44.
London, A. S., Wilmoth, J., & Fleishman, J. (2004). Moving for care: Findings from the US HIV cost and services utilization study. AIDS Care, 16(7), 858–875.
Low, S., & Merry, S. E. (2010). Engaged anthropology: Diversity and dilemmas. Current Anthropology, 51(S2), S203–S226.
Margolis, R., Ludi, E., & Wiener, L. (2013). International adaptation: Psychosocial and parenting experiences of caregivers who travel to the United States to obtain acute medical care for their seriously ill child. Social Work in Health Care, 52, 669–683.
Massimo, L. M., Wiley, T. J., & Caprino, D. (2008). Health emigration: A challenge in paediatric oncology. Journal of Child Health Care, 12(2), 106–115.
Meinert, L. (2004). Resources for health in Uganda: Bourdieu’s concepts of capital and habitus. Anthropology and Medicine, 11(1), 11–26.
Merriman, P. (2013). Rethinking mobile methods. Mobilities, 9(2), 167–187.
Molesworth, K. (2006). Mobility and health: The impact of transport provision on direct and indirect determinants of access to health services. International Forum for Rural Transport and Development. http://ifrtd.gn.apc.org/new/proj/mob_health.php. Accessed 25 May 2014.
Monette, D., Sullivan, T., DeJong, C., & Hilton, T. P. (2013). Applied social research: A tool for the human services. Belmont: Cengage Learning.
Myers, M. (2011). Walking again lively: Towards an ambulant and conversive methodology of performance and research. Mobilities, 6(2), 183–201.
OHCHR, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. (1990). Convention on the Rights of the Child: Adopted and opened for signature, ratification and accession by General Assembly resolution 44/25 of 20 November 1989 entry into force 2 September 1990, in accordance with article 49. http://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/crc.aspx. Accessed 20 May 2014.
Pain, R. (2003). Social geography: On action-orientated research. Progress in Human Geography, 27(5), 649–657.
Pfister, A. E., Vindrola-Padros, C., & Johnson, G. A. (2014). Together, we can show you: Using participant-generated visual data in collaborative research. Collaborative Anthropology, 7(1), 002C (in press).
Poland, B., Lehoux, P., Holmes, D., & Andrews, G. (2005). How place matters: Unpacking technology and power in health and social care. Health and Social Care in the Community, 13(2), 170–180.
Porter, G. (2007). Transport, (im)mobility and spatial poverty traps: Issues for rural women and girl children in sub-Saharan Africa. Paper presented at the Understanding and addressing spatial poverty traps: An international workshop, Spier Estate, Stellenbosch, South Africa. http://www.odi.org.uk/sites/odi.org.uk/files/odi-assets/publications-opinion-files/3536.pdf
Porter, G., & Abane, A. (2008). Increasing children’s participation in African transport planning: Reflections on methodological issues in a child-centred research project. Children’s Geographies, 6(2), 151–167.
Porter, G., & Hampshire, K. (2010). A moving issue: Children and young people’s transport and mobility constraints in Africa. IFRTD Forum News, 15(1), 1–3.
Prince, R. J., Geissler, P. W., Nokes, K., Maende, J. O., Okatcha, F., Gringorenko, E., et al. (2001). Knowledge of herbal and pharmaceutical medicines among Luo children in Kenya. Anthropology and Medicine, 8(2–3), 211–235.
ROHA (Registro Oncopediatrico Hospitalario Argentino). (2008). Resultados 2000–2008. Buenos Aires: ROHA, Fundacion Kaleidos.
Senior, K. (2006). Health migration and childhood cancer. The Lancet, 7, 889.
Smedley, B. D., Stith, A. Y., & Nelson, A. R. (2003). Unequal treatment: Confronting racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
Smith, S. J., & Easterlow, D. (2004). The strange geography of health inequalities. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 30, 173–190.
Smith, S. J., Easterlow, D., Munro, M., & Turner, K. M. (2003). Housing as health capital: How health trajectories and housing paths are linked. Journal of Social Issues, 59, 501–25.
Solomon, H. (2011). Affective journeys: The emotional structuring of medical tourism in India. Anthropology and Medicine, 18(1), 105–118.
Song, P. (2010). Biotech pilgrims and the transnational quest for stem cell cures. Medical Anthropology, 29(4), 384–402.
Soyinka, W. (2005). Climate of fear: The quest for dignity in a Dehumanized World. New York: Random House.
Spinney, J. (2011). A chance to catch a breath: Using mobile video ethnography in cycling research. Mobilities, 6(2), 161–182.
Suchman, L. (2007). Human-machine reconfigurations: Plans and situated action. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Tatum, P., & Schoech, D. (1992). Migration of persons with HIV disease: The search for care. AIDS & Public Policy Journal, 7(1), 56–63.
Thompson, L. (2013). Protection of migrants’ rights and state sovereignty. UN Chronicle, The Magazine of the United Nations, L(3). http://unchronicle.un.org/article/protection-migrants-rights-and-state-sovereignty/. Accessed 25 May 2014.
UNGMD, United Nations Global Migration Database. (2008). International migration. New York: UN Department of Economics and Social Affairs, Population Division. http://esa.un.org/unmigration/. Accessed 24 May 2014.
UNHCR, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. (2014). Children on the run: Unaccompanied children leaving Central America and Mexico and the need for international protection. A Study Conducted by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Regional Office for the United States and the Caribbean, Washington, DC. http://www.unhcrwashington.org/sites/default/files/UAC_Children%20on%20the%20Run_Full%20Report_May2014.pdf. Accessed 20 May 2014.
UNICEF, United Nations Children’s Fund. (2010). Children, adolescents and migration: Filling the evidence gap. New York: UNICEF Division of Policy and Practice, United Nations Population Division/DESA, UNDP Special Unit for South-South Cooperation and the University of Houston. http://www.unicef.org/socialpolicy/files/UNICEF_Data_on_migrant_children_and_adolescents_Handout_version_Update_June_2010.pdf. Accessed 24 May 2014.
UN Treaty Collection. (2014). Chapter IV human rights: Convention on the Rights of the Child. https://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=IV-11&chapter=4&lang=en. Accessed 20 May 2014.
Urry, J. (2002). Mobility and proximity. Sociology, 36(2), 255–274.
Van der Geest, S., & Finkler, K. (2004). Hospital ethnography: Introduction. Social Science and Medicine, 59, 1995–2001.
Vergunst, J. (2011). Technology and technique in a useful ethnography of movement. Mobilities, 6(2), 203–219.
Vindrola-Padros, C. (2011). Life and death journeys: Medical travel, cancer, and children in Argentina. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of South Florida, Florida.
Vindrola-Padros, C. (2012). The everyday lives of children with cancer in Argentina: Going beyond the disease and treatment. Children and Society, 26(6), 430–442.
Vindrola-Padros, C., & Whiteford, L. (2012). The search for medical technologies abroad: The case of medical travel and pediatric oncology treatment in Argentina. Technology and Innovation, 14, 25–38.
Wood, E., Yip, B., Gataric, N., Montaner, J., O’Shaughnessy, M., Schechter, M., et al. (2000). Determinants of geographic mobility among participants in a population-based HIV/AIDS drug treatment program. Health and Place, 6(1), 33–40.
Zelizer, V. A. (1985). Pricing the priceless child: The changing social value of children. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer Science+Business Media Singapore
About this entry
Cite this entry
Vindrola-Padros, C., Johnson, G.A. (2017). Children Seeking Health Care: International Perspectives on Children's Use of Mobility to Obtain Health Services. In: Ni Laoire, C., White, A., Skelton, T. (eds) Movement, Mobilities, and Journeys. Geographies of Children and Young People, vol 6. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-029-2_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-029-2_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-287-028-5
Online ISBN: 978-981-287-029-2
eBook Packages: Social SciencesReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences