The increasing ethno-cultural diversity in European societies has posed new
challenges for their health and welfare systems. As of January 2017, migrants constitute 16.8% of
Norway’s total population (Statistics Norway, 2017). Studies show that despite the availability of
maternal care and legal migrant women’s right to access reproductive health services in most
European countries, including Norway, migrant women have been found to exhibit different
perinatal outcomes, and patterns of antenatal care utilization compared to non-migrant women
(Dejin-Karlsson & Östergren, 2004; Rechel et al., 2011c).
Migrants are affected by an array of challenges that might act as barriers to attaining good health
outcomes, even in an egalitarian society like Norway. Socio-economic inequalities are the most
prominent issues discussed in policy for addressing barriers to access. Although they are important
they tend to overshadow more nuanced factors such as linguistic and/ or ethno-cultural barriers for
targeting inequalities. My literature search revealed that there is an inadequate body of research
exploring the effects of more implicit and informal social determinants such as ethnicity and
culture linked to migrant health. Although some studies acknowledged them as determining
factors, none analyzed or evaluated how they have been addressed in policy. Thereof, it became
the aim of this study to contribute to this knowledge gap by exploring:
1. How has health policy in Norway recognized and addressed barriers that affect migrant
and refugee women’s access to Maternal Health services?
2. How have these policies enabled accessibility and acceptability of Maternal Health services
to migrant and refugee women