This article addresses the strategies employed by Cape Verdean immigrants in the Netherlands to deal with health problems.Drawing on qualitative research, it discusses the choice of plural therapeutic itineraries, including the use of informal, formal and transnational healthcare. These pathways are influenced by Cape Verdeans' lay rationalities about health, which are based on a "Christian-spiritual repertoire", and by a sociocultural and political context that limits their access to Dutch formal healthcare services. The plurality of therapeutic itineraries employed by Cape Verdeans is realised through the (re)construction of their lay knowledge about illness, the mobilisation of material resources and the activation of local and transnational social resources. This plurality of health seeking strategies renders evident the resilience of these migrants when confronted with adversities that can impact negatively on their physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing.
Therapeutic Itineraries; Resilience; Transnational Healthcare; Cape Verdean Immigrants; The Netherlands