Medical Xenophobia and Zimbabwean Migrant Access to Public Health Services in South Africa Jonathan Crush and Godfrey Tawodzera Xenophobic attitudes and actions are all-pervasive in South Africa in civil society and the state. Medical xenophobia refers to the negative attitudes and practices of health professionals and employees towards migrants and refugees based purely on their identity as non-South African. This paper examines the extent to which xenophobia manifests itself within the public institutions that offer health services to citizens and non-citizens, based on primary research with Zimbabwean migrants who try to access the system. The paper argues that medical xenophobia is deeply entrenched in the South African public health system despite being a fundamental breach of the country’s Constitution and Bill of Rights, international human rights obligations and the existence of professional codes of ethics governing the treatment of patients. Keywords: South Africa; Zimbabwe Migrants; Xenophobia; Public Health Introduction Xenophobia has become deeply institutionalised in post-apartheid society. Hostility towards migrants and refugees makes South Africa one of the most migrant- unfriendly countries in the world (Crush 2009; Crush and Ramachandran 2010). In May 2008, the country was rocked by violent attacks on the lives and property of Africans from other parts of the continent (Hassim, Kupe, and Worby 2008; Everatt 2010). Over 60 people died in the violence and over 100,000 migrants were hounded out of their homes and communities. President Thabo Mbeki and other leading political figures blamed the violence on fringe criminal elements and denied that Jonathan Crush is a CIGI Chair in Global Migration and Development at Balsillie School of International Affairs, Waterloo and University of Cape Town, South Africa. Correspondence to: Jonathan Crush, Balsillie School of International Affairs, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, Canada N2L 6C2. E-mail: crushj@queensu.ca. Godfrey Tawodzera is a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at African Centre for Cities, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa. Correspondence to: African Centre for Cities, University of Cape Town, P/B Rondebosch, South Africa E-mail: godfrey.tawodzera@uct.ac.za Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 2014 Vol. 40, No. 4, 655–670, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2013.830504 © 2013 Taylor & Francis