The EU as Active and Passive Political Determinant of Forced Migrants’ Health: Insights from the Case of Germany

Abstract

Context: This article examines the EU's function as a political determinant of health (PDoH) in national-level regulation of forced migrants’ access to health(care), with a focus on Germany. It sheds light on the role the EU has come to play—and has been assigned—in national policy making under the impact of different crises. Methods: By applying the concepts of claims and frames/framing, the article examines in a document analysis how and to what end(s) the EU as a polity and specific EU legislation were invoked in German draft legislation. Findings: Increasing Europeanization in the areas of health and migration has not only forced national legislators to adapt legislation to abide by EU rules and standards, it has also prompted governmental actors to shift responsibility for policy reforms to the EU—even in cases where not all of these reforms were legally required. Conclusions: The EU's role as a PDoH must be considered from two angles: the EU's active potential to determine public health through its policies and laws, and its passive—to some extent involuntary—potential to do so through the strategic invoking of EU norms, rules, and (in)competences by actors across the EU multilevel governance system.