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Main findings of this qualitative study confirm that migrant communities need focused health attention because of numerous barriers to healthcare experienced in Switzerland. Improving the reproductive health of the migrant community is a priority that can be addressed by public health interventions, including integration of migrants into the society, strict observance of labor regulations, improved communication with healthcare providers, and better information targeting migrant communities.

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The findings provide confirmatory evidence of the unusual cancer patterns among North African populations, who have low risks for most cancer sites, and high risks for certain cancers, such as of the nasopharynx and bladder.

Many studies on the generational social mobility of immigrant populations have taken into account the socio-economic characteristics of the immigrant groups on the one hand, and the historical and economic conditions of the receiving society, including the legal framework, on the other. However, little attention has so far been paid to the juridical status of immigrant groups. This paper explores the variation in education and employment performance of young people from different immigrant origins (Italians, Portuguese, Turks, Croats, Kosovars and Serbs) and of different citizenship statuses* naturalised, non-naturalised, and Swiss-by-birth. Inter-ethnic group variations become much more muted when social origin and length of stay are controlled for; however, they do not disappear altogether. Naturalised immigrant youth perform best; indeed in many cases, where they are Swiss-born, they out-perform native Swiss. This performance, however, is overlooked by Swiss society because the acquisition of Swiss citizenship makes it statistically invisible

In this paper, we use original linked data to better understand the relationship between remigration intentions and actual behaviors and, more specifically, to verify whether remigration intentions can predict migrants’ actual behaviors. To do so, we compare self-declared remigration intentions with actual departures during the 2 years following a survey. Then, we analyze to what extent the factors associated with both dimensions are similar. The results show that 96% of migrants who wanted to stay in Switzerland actually stayed and that 71% of those who wanted to leave the country actually left. Overall, intentions were a good predictor of behaviors, and the factors associated with remigration intentions and actual behaviors were almost the same. However, intentions reflected migrants’ personal feelings at the time of the survey and sometimes reflected their potential to remain in Switzerland from a legal point of view. Behaviors were more rational than intentions in that migrants’ reflections on their actual situations were more profound, and their choices to stay in Switzerland or to leave were thus influenced by rational elements such as their labor market situations or family constraints.

Background: More than 20% of people living in Switzerland are immigrants, defined as people with foreign nationality. This study examines health disparities between the main immigrant groups in Switzerland and the majority Swiss population. Methods: Epidemiological analysis of the 2002 Swiss Health Survey (SHS): the SHS contains health-related information about 19,706 people who were randomly sampled from among people living in Switzerland. Bivariate and multivariate analyses of six variables on self-reported health were performed. Findings: The data from the 2002 Swiss Health Survey provide some evidence of health disparities between Swiss people and immigrants. Although the self-reported health of ‘‘Northern immigrants’’ (people from Germany and France) does not differ significantly from that of the majority Swiss population, ‘‘Southern immigrants’’ (people from Italy, Former Yugoslavia, Portugal, Spain and Turkey) report lower levels of health in several areas. Lower levels of health are particularly likely to be reported by Italian men and women. Conclusion: The self-reported health of immi- grants is currently inferior to that of the Swiss. If it is the position of the Swiss health care system to ensure equal health provision for all Swiss residents, including immigrant groups, and to strive for equal health outcomes for all, self-reported ill health among immigrants is a useful basis for health policy and planning

Not only are there few data on sub-Saharan migrant populations, but relatively little information is available on cancer patterns in Africa. This report presents cancer mortality patterns among the 290,000 sub-Saharan African migrants in France. Risks of mortality from different cancers in migrants born in West, Central, East, and 'Other' parts of Africa have been compared with that observed in the local-born population, using mortality data from the period 1979-85 and population data from the 1982 French census. Relative risks were adjusted for important confounding factors such as social class and area of residence. Compared with natives, overall mortality from cancer is lower in sub-Saharan African migrants. Higher cancer mortality risks, however, are observed among males for several sites: liver in Central and West Africans; bladder in West Africans; and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in Other African migrants. For females, risks were elevated for nasopharyngeal cancers in Other African and liver in West African migrants. The results are, for the most part, consistent with the few available data on cancer patterns in Africa, and with the patterns observed in African migrants to England and Wales (UK).