INTRODUCTION

In this paper I ask whether ‘illegal’ migrants have a right of access to the public health systems provided by nation-states as part of the welfare provision for their citizens. The answer will have something to do with whether we can establish that they have a right to health which states are obliged to meet. I will argue that they do have such a right, and that right must be met through access to public health systems regardless of ‘legal’ status. The argument has two parts: first, that the level of agency that should be enjoyed by all human beings, regardless of their ‘legal’ status, requires that they have access to a certain level of healthcare as of right, otherwise we deny them their full humanity – we cannot deny people full humanity simply because they do not enjoy full citizenship; second, that those states that have signed and ratified certain international instruments regarding the right to health are obliged, under those instruments, to provide public healthcare to all within their territory, regardless of status, and are in breach of their international obligations if they fail to do so. And so the argument has two aspects: the first ethical, the second legal.