Migrants and access to health care in Costa Rica
利用行政数据和代表性调查，检验了哥斯达黎加关于尼加拉瓜移民过度使用医疗服务和遭受歧视的两种常见说法，发现两者均不成立。
As in most immigrant-receiving countries in the global North, countries in the South face challenges regarding migrant access to social rights and the effect of migrants on the sustainability of the welfare state. In the Latin American context, this holds especially for countries such as Costa Rica, which has one of the strongest social policy regimes in the South and the highest (Nicaraguan) immigrant stock in Latin America. Set in the context of Costa Rica, this paper assesses two views which seem hard to reconcile, and, are common in the country. First, it is claimed that Nicaraguan migrants use public health services disproportionately, thereby threatening the country’s welfare system. Second, pro-migrant rights non-governmental organizations and academics are concerned, primarily based on qualitative studies, that access to health services for Nicaraguan immigrants is limited, and that they are discriminated based on nationality. This paper relies on administrative data and a unique data set representative of Nicaraguan born individuals residing in Costa Rica to examine the validity of both these claims. We do not find support for either. The incidence of migrant health care use is lower than their share in the population and at the same time there is no evidence of discrimination in health care access for migrants based on their nationality. The paper underlines the need for more informed migration debates.