Facing the Healthcare System as a Refugee: The Plight of Somali Women

Abstract This study uses a qualitative approach to examine how biopolitics and medical dominance affect the lives of refugee women of Somali origin. The focus is specifically on looking at the challenges which they face in negotiating the healthcare system of a Western city in the United States. The study utilizes the context of prenatal care and delivery to examine the way this subordinate group is treated, their reaction to this treatment, and the perceptions which are in turn engendered by their reaction to this treatment. Biopolitics in this context is a conceptual collaborator in illuminating the body as a source of transcendental identity. It will be particularized by illuminating U.S. health care providers within the context of providing prenatal services to Somali women refugee patients. Within this context Somali women are representative of particular ideological identities that are conveyed within biomedical interactions