Austerity and its implications for immigrant health in France

•State financial constraints exacerbate inequalities in French health care access.•France manifests significant health disparities despite high outcome measures.•Women immigrants and seasonal workers have rights to health care without access to services.•Analysis of health inequalities must address often overlooked geospatial disparities.

The ongoing economic crisis in France increasingly has affected immigrant rights, including access to health care. Consistent with a 2014 League Against Cancer survey, we identify the ways in which sickness produces a “double penalty” for immigrants with serious illness. Immigrants with chronic illnesses such as cancer, diabetes, and other debilitating conditions divert vital funds from daily needs to deal with sickness and loss of work while at the same time national austerity measures shred the state's traditional safety net of social services and support. We examine how immigrants strategize to manage financial exigencies, therapeutic itineraries and social relations in the face of these converging pressures. We base our findings on two studies related by this theme: an investigation of health inequalities in the Médoc region, in which 88 women, 44 of North African and Eastern European origin, were interviewed over a three-year period (2010-2013); and a three-year study (2014-2017) of West African immigrant women with breast cancer seeking treatment in the greater Paris region, 70 members of immigrant associations, and clinical personnel in three hospitals.