Ensuring health equity of marginalized populations: experiences from mainstreaming the health of migrants

Abstract

Migrants around the world significantly contribute to the economies of countries of origin and destination alike. Despite the growing number of migrants in today's globalized world, the conditions in which migrants travel, live and work can carry exceptional risks to their physical and mental well-being. These risks are often linked to restrictive immigration and employment policies, economic and social factors and dominant anti-migrant sentiments in societies, and are often referred to as the social determinants of migrants' health. These social determinants need to be addressed in order for migrants to attain their development potential and to concurrently contribute to sustainable development, while reducing the health costs of migration for both migrants and societies of origin and destination. A multi-sectoral approach is required to effectively address the social determinants of migrants' health, as many of the solutions to improving migrants' health lie not only in the health sector but in other sectors, such as labour and immigration. This requires collaboration across the different sectors and integrating migrants' health issues in different sectoral policies to avoid marginalization and exclusion of migrants and ensure positive health outcomes for migrants and their families. The paper will discuss a 'Health in All Policies' (HiAP) approach to migrants' health as, to date, there has not been much discussion on framing migrants' health within an HiAP approach. The paper will also present some examples from countries who have addressed different aspects of migrants' health in line with the recommendations of the 61st World Health Assembly (WHA) Resolution 61.17 on the Health of Migrants (2008).

An overview of tuberculosis and migration

“…The conditions and circumstances surrounding migration pathways often pose risks to the physical, mental and social well-being of migrants. [41][42][43][44] Various factors along migration pathways can, therefore, themselves be regarded as a social determinant of health (see Figure 2). [45][46][47] While the factors discussed here can affect health risks for all those who migrate, certain subgroups may be more vulnerable than others due to gender and age, and by legal status.…”

Health System Responses to the Health Needs of Refugees and Asylum-seekers in Malaysia: A Qualitative Study

“…Overall, this highlights the need for a multi-sectoral approach in effectively addressing the social determinants of refugees’ health. Many studies are in line with this proposition, stating that solutions to improve the health of refugee populations lie not only within the health sector but also with other sectors [46,47,48] such as the immigration, labour and finance sector.…”

Self-Perceived Health among Migrants Seen in Médecins du Monde Free Clinics in Europe: Impact of Length of Stay and Wealth of Country of Origin on Migrants’ Health

“…Labor force participation reduces the risk of mortality, and being active lowers the risk of mortality when unmarried [50]. It is a public health issue to facilitate access to the labor market in order to improve the health of deprived communities [51][52][53]. Employment conditions for migrants and refugees are usually more strenuous than for host populations [54,55].…”