January 2016
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5 Citations
There are different ways by which immigrants can help relatives to access health care in the homeland. Beyond financial remittances, this chapter looks at “transnational health insurances” (THIs) as a specific form of social remittances. THIs are insurance schemes set up by immigrants in cooperation with public and private actors in the home and host societies in order to provide health coverage to relatives across borders. Looking at the creation and implementation of THIs in the Belgian-Congolese postcolonial context, the authors discuss the nature of such remittances, the drivers of immigrant transnational engagement and its impact on communities in origin countries. The data used in this chapter was collected during extensive multi-sited fieldwork in Belgium and the DR Congo between January 2012 and August 2013.