Saint-Laurent du Maroni Hospital. Some of the building’s structures go back to the time when French Guiana was mainly known for its prisons. Dennis Lamaison
The often-ignored French Guiana, one of the five overseas departments of France, has recently attracted the attention of international media. The news coming from this tiny South American territory is not bad.
Crime, school overcrowding hospitals, unemployment, as well as costs of living and the slums have been at shocking levels.
The discontent of the citizens caused a massive protest this month. Demonstrators want an $US2.7 billion aid emergency package by the French government to ease the region’s economic and social situation.
Health care is of particular issue in the penal colony of the past of 276,000 residents. Hospitals are not staffed, and the technical infrastructure is lacking. In some regions, the nearest hospital is just a two-day kayak journey away.
State health offices may have stricter requirements than are legally required to those who seek medical benefits. For instance, some may request that foreign applicants prove that they have a longer residence beyond what is required by law in the hope of preventing people from moving to the country.
These same arguments are, in actual fact, used to justify the same policies of discrimination against people from mainland France also. However, in Guiana, the practices are more prominently displayed.
In the interior of the rural region, there are times when people make use of canoes for transport to hospitals. Dennis Lamaison, Author provided
Categories of ethnicity
Immigrants aren’t only the one group who are subject to discrimination when it comes to accessing health care services in French Guiana. Minority populations who have a family member who is French or otherwise, may be affected as well.
This is due to the fact that In French Guiana, people often employ ethnicity to distinguish themselves from other people. Creole, Maroon, Amerindian, Hmong, Chinese, or French Metropolitans (mainlanders) are commonly used as classifications.
According to French laws, the government cannot collect information or make use of it in a way that is based on ethnicity. However, in Guiana, the use of such data dates way back to the territory’s beginnings as it was a slave colony.
Naturally, each grouping has the stereotypes associated with it: “Maroons are child-like,” for instance, “Hmongs are disciplined,” and “Amerindians drink their dole money.”
However, these assumptions are not made to be permanent. Since they are used to justify the power relationships between different groups and groups, they change depending on the ethnicity of the person speaking. This dynamic of social interaction is evident in the healthcare system of French Guiana.
Minorities and foreigners of different ethnic backgrounds face discrimination in accessing health healthcare. Dennis Lamaison, Author provided
In Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni, French Guiana’s second largest city, Maroons – the descendants of escaped formerly enslaved people – are the majority population and, therefore, the largest group of healthcare users. Health professionals, on the other hand, are predominantly Creoles as well as French mainlanders.
The only road that runs through the territory is a road that connects the coastline. Semhur / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-ND
The professionals usually cite Maroon’s historical background to explain specific behaviors of the patient. In the 18th and 19th centuries, slaves who ran away from plantations would hide in forests, forming communities that were mostly separated from the coastal Guianese society for nearly 200 years.
The year 1969 saw the huge land they occupy today predominantly tropical forests that lie in the country’s inner regions – finally incorporated within Guiana. Department of Guiana. In the year 1969, they were granted access to French citizenship as well as services of the public sector like health and education.
Doctors, nurses, and other health professionals frequently point out these facts in order to provide a reason for Maroon’s difficulty in obtaining medical treatment, implying that they’re not familiar with “the Western way.”
‘Them’ and ‘us’
Negative connotations accompany historical references. Certain Creole experts believe that Maroon people are not worthy of treatment because they had to “leave their forest” to gain access to such services. Contrasting this with their status as “Guianese taxpayers” who fund the benefits, some might claim that this is a reason to deny Maroon people assistance with receiving gifts.
This attitude is better understood when you consider the Creole people’s personal history in French Guiana. The process of gaining civil rights was gradual and slow. Social empowerment was only available in the final stages of an ongoing Westernisation process that started with slavery in the 17th century.
