This study looks at the moral economy of immigration in Turkey with a specific lens on African-origin immigrants’ access to healthcare. Turkey, in addition to currently hosting the largest number of refugees in the world (including over 3.5 million Syrians), is witnessing an influx of immigrants from various sub-Saharan African countries. While some of these immigrants reside in Turkey only temporarily on their way to European countries, many others are settled and engage in taxed or untaxed work activities such as shuttle trade, street vending, construction work, or opening their own businesses. Due to the nature of the healthcare system in Turkey, these immigrants struggle in accessing and paying for health services. By drawing on data I collected through interviews and ethnographic fieldwork in Istanbul, Turkey, I explore how this visible racial minority group navigates the complexities of healthcare. I show that immigrants organize their healthcare through what I call ‘shadow health’: collaboration between immigrant individuals and communities and local and international NGOs, charities, and volunteering physicians, which oftentimes involves provision of unregulated and undocumented care in private and public facilities. I specifically point to how immigrants’ racial, ethnic, and religious identities and boundary-drawing practices play a role in that endeavor and how immigrants pursue community building simultaneously with searching for health care solutions. I also document how different actors such as health care providers, government bureaucrats, and NGOs categorize and racialize immigrants with impacts on their access to care.