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Migrants on the Move and Food (In)security: A Call for Research

Abstract
Food insecurity contributes to negative outcomes for health and wellbeing, and its impact may be exacerbated during periods of vulnerability. While food insecurity is both a driver and a consequence of migration, anecdotal evidence indicates that it is also common during migration when people are ‘on the move’, although its prevalence and severity during these periods are largely undocumented. Food security monitoring is critical to ensuring the universal right to…

Internal and International Migration and its Impact on the Mental Health of Migrants. In: Moussaoui D., Bhugra D., Tribe R., Ventriglio A. (eds) Mental Health, Mental Illness and Migration

This chapter describes the facts and figures of today’s migration patterns and briefly presents the limits and findings of the existing research on the impact of different forms of migration on the mental health of migrants. The article aims at promoting a rights-based approach to migrants’ access to mental health care, as supported by international legal instruments. Since this right is at times disregarded due to the legal unavailability and factual inaccessibility for migrants of the…

Migration Health 2020 Impact Overview

This report is an annual overview of activities led and implemented by the Migration Health Division of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in 2020, in partnership with Member States, United Nations agencies and other partners in the international community, to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, meet the operational challenges and advance understanding of migration health, encourage socioeconomic development through migration, and work towards ensuring respect of the human…

Information, Education and Communication (IEC) Materials for the World Mental Health Day, 2021

Information, education, and communication (IEC) materials elaborated for the World Mental Health Day, 2021, in line with the official theme “Mental Health in an Unequal World”, are intended to raise awareness among the general public of each individual’s personal responsibility for action to reduce inequalities affecting the mental health and psychosocial well-being of different gender groups. The educational component of these IEC materials contains approaches and tips on how to address…

Emergency Health – 2020 Global Highlights

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is a key player in responding to humanitarian and public health emergencies as well as supporting health system recovery and resilience. Health support in emergencies is an essential part of IOM’s humanitarian mandate, and recognized by the Organization’s Migration Crisis Operational Framework as one of the 15 sectors of assistance to address before, during and after crises.

This factsheet showcases some of this programming in 2020 …

Migration Health Research Bulletin, Issue No. 20

This issue of the Bulletin features research articles, reports, and commentary pieces on relevant migration health topics such as reproductive health, mental health, and COVID-19 in the context of mobility.

The audio podcast episode focuses on women refugees’ access to maternal health services in Kenya.

Migration Health Research Bulletin, Issue No. 19

This issue of the Bulletin features peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, reports, and commentaries focusing on some of IOM’s migration health programmes such as mental health and psychosocial support, vaccination, tuberculosis screening, and public health emergency management.

Two interviews are included in the current episode of the audio podcast: one on the vaccination programme for US-bound refugees globally and the other on migration health governance in Africa.

Community-based approaches to MHPSS

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has identified seven different levels of community engagement in MHPSS programmes. In the first three levels, where communities do not have decision-making power, information is either shared with communities or gathered from them, or they are merely consulted. The next two levels are firstly where communities are involved in activity planning but their power remains limited (known as ‘functional’ community engagement) and secondly where…

Migration governance and mental health. In: Dinesh Bhugra (ed) Oxford Textbook of Migrant Psychiatry

The chapter presents the Global Compact on Migration, the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and other global governance instruments, focusing on their links with mental health of migrants. The possibility to limit some of the stressors that accompany certain migration paths, and to promote all migrants’ access to mental health care in new countries of residence is enshrined in these documents. The actual impact and effect on governance of these documents needs to be seen, read, and…

Psychosocial and mental health impacts of migration on ‘left-behind’ children of international migrant workers. In: Dinesh Bhugra (ed) Oxford Textbook of Migrant Psychiatry

Global migration flows include large numbers of labour migrants, many of whom are of prime child-bearing/rearing age and have children who must remain in the origin country during the migration episode. The psychosocial and mental health (PSMH) needs of children and other family members who are separated from migrant kin can be extremely complex and have been largely neglected in research and in intervention frameworks. This chapter explores the PSMH of children who remain in the origin…