‘Doing death’ the Mediterranean way: end-of-life in a segregated nursing home

Abstract

This paper presents ethnographic data on a migrant-specific nursing home ward in Switzerland. It shows that the structurally pre-defined segregation of residents sharing a common characteristic affects care practices along three dimensions: performances of sameness/otherness, informalisation of relationships and language/understanding. Yet, ‘death work’ showed little difference to non-segregated wards. However, relatives’ practices in dying trajectories were less congruent with nursing home ‘doing death’, and collisions may evolve. The need for negotiations associated with running a segregated ward seems to elicit enhanced institutional reflexivity with potential to increase the ability of institutions to provide diversity-sensitive services to all residents.