Discrimination from a Doctor in Switzerland — We Remind Everyone: Health Is a Right, Not a Favour
By: Ayçe İdil*
Every Day Anew: Living with Overt and Subtle Discrimination
In Switzerland, if you are undocumented, living as an asylum seeker (with an N permit), or even if you have residence rights — in short, if you are a refugee — you are often treated as if you were “nothing.”
Living in a country where even the act of existing requires permission, where your most basic rights are presented as a “kindness” or a “gift”…
We all came here for different reasons: because of wars born from capitalist crises, oppression, patriarchal violence, and authoritarian regimes supported by imperialist powers.
We left behind our homes, our loved ones, our memories.
And here, every single day, we fight again — simply to exist.
We struggle internally with feelings of belonging and alienation, and externally with visible and invisible forms of discrimination.
To survive here, like any human being, we need shelter, food, rest, and health.
Yet these most basic human rights are often offered to us as “charity,” “tolerance,” or a “favour.”
We are expected to be grateful — as if living itself were a privilege.
A few weeks ago, in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino, I experienced something that laid this reality bare before my eyes.
My mother, who is 50 years old, has several health problems and needs regular check-ups.
So I wrote to our family doctor requesting an orthopaedic appointment.
The reply was short, but heavy:
“Medical practices are not self-service.
Consultations, therapies and medicines are expensive and are funded by Swiss taxpayers.”
In that moment, I froze inside.
A doctor’s duty should be to protect the health of their patient.
But this response directly questioned the right of refugees to access healthcare.
Those words were not only dismissive — they carried an implicit message:
“You are a guest here — know your place.”
Such words from a doctor are not merely a personal prejudice, but a clear reflection of the structural discrimination refugees face across Europe.
Health Is a Right, Not a Favour
No one goes to the doctor for no reason.
Every person who enters a hospital does so because they need help.
And refugees — who live with sadness, stress, and trauma — need that help even more.
Our living conditions and mental state make us sick.
Many migrants from Turkey I’ve met here tell me they “keep getting sick and can’t get better.”
It’s understandable: we are all psychologically exhausted, and that exhaustion affects our health.
Instead of recognizing this, discriminatory attitudes add new trauma to the ones we already carry.
Every person, regardless of country of birth, identity, or status, has the same right to health.
Yet as refugees, we are treated as if we are “overusing” this right, as if we should be thankful for it.
We were forced to leave our countries — driven out by necessity, only to survive.
When we arrived here, we had nothing: no money, no home, no security.
And still, we came here to remain human, to rebuild life.
And now we are told that we live “off the taxes of Swiss citizens.”
As if even the air we breathe were subtracted from their taxes.
This is not neutral information — it is a form of exclusion, a racist expression.
Such statements question our right to access the healthcare system and legitimize our dehumanization.
But this is not an individual problem.
It is a systemic one — a structure that keeps refugees in a state of debt, gratitude, and silence.
And we are aware of it.
These words wound not only our bodies, but also our souls.
We came to this country already carrying trauma, and now we are further devalued, shamed, and silenced.
Many refugees cannot speak out.
Some feel ashamed, some are afraid, some think, “Maybe they’re right.”
But the more this silence grows, the stronger discrimination becomes.
To stay silent is to give it power.
We Exist Through Solidarity
I will not remain silent.
And I am not alone.
That is precisely why I am part of a collective, part of an organized solidarity.
Because against racism and discrimination, we must fight together — as refugees.
At PangeaKolektif, we will continue to stand against all forms of racism and discrimination, to defend our rights, and to amplify our voices.
Because we know that when one of us faces injustice, it affects all of us.
The right to health is part of the right to life.
This right is neither a gift from a state nor a favour from a doctor.
It is the right to be human.
And we will not let anyone take that dignity from us.
We are here.
We exist.
We fight together.
And we know: to speak up, to stand together, to claim our rights — that is the only way to live humanly.