Mental health articles

Migrant Groups with Particular Health Risks or Poor Access to Health Services A number of reports have documented the particular health risks, the reduced access to health care and the health consequences for migrants in many parts of the world. The unfavorable health outcomes observed have been linked to the lower entitlements for migrants in the receiving countries (Braunschweig and Carballo 2001; UNFPA/IMP 2004; IOM 2005). Migrants are not only exposed to poor working and living conditions, factors which are in themselves determinants of poor health. They also have reduced access to health care due to a number of political, administrative and cultural reasons not necessarily present for the native population. Different concepts of health and disease, language difficulties or the presence of racism are examples of barriers that migrants face ( migrants, access to health care;  migrants, diversity management). The risk of negative health outcomes is not equally distributed within the migrant population. For example, women may have a higher risk than men, due to poorer access to care or lack of empowerment. Migrants who do physical work experience a higher risk of industrial accidents compared to highly skilled computer programmers. In the following, selected risk groups are presented. More details are provided in dedicated essays.

The increasing number of women migrants has led to more attention being paid to the particular problems they face during the migration process. As noted in the report “Meeting the Challenges of Migration” by
UNFPA/IMP, migration can further female empowerment,e. g. by providing women with the opportunity to earn money as labor migrants, thereby becoming economically independent. However, there is also concern
that migration of women can lead to an increase in their discrimination, exploitation, abuse and in their being at risk of being infected with sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV.