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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…

COVID-19: Exposing and addressing health disparities among ethnic minorities and migrants

The COVID-19 pandemic has shone a spotlight on health disparities and has created an opportunity to address the causes underlying these inequities. Every country has vulnerable populations that require special attention from policymakers in their response to the current pandemic. Inclusive policies that ensure equal access to care for everybody including COVID-19 testing, new therapeutics, and a vaccine (when available) will be critical to protecting the whole population. Migrants living in…

Neglect of low-income migrants in COVID-19 response

South Asia, home to around a quarter of the world’s population and 40% of the world’s poor, is being hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. The global response to the pandemic has focused mainly on containment of the contagion and “flattening the curve” through testing and strict social distancing, but these universal approaches fail to take account of resource limitations in countries in South Asia and ignore the realities of vulnerable populations, such as low-income migrants, internally…

Missing: Where Are the Migrants in Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Plans?

La salud de los migrantes internacionales en el mundo en vías de desarrollo: Reflexiones desde el lente de la desigualdad

An overview of tuberculosis and migration

This article is the first in the State-of-the-Art series of the International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease on TB and migration. It provides an overview of migration trends, migration pathways and social determinants, and impact on TB. This article outlines a framework for the prevention and reduction of the TB burden among migrants, adapted from the World Health Organization's End TB Strategy, and in accordance with the Stop TB Partnership's Global…

Health for all migrants in Latin America and the Caribbean

Latin America and the Caribbean has faced inconsistent human rights and health protection for migrants in the past, just as much as other regions. For example, in Chile, about 70% of immigrants come from other Latin America and the Caribbean countries (representing 2·7% of the total population of Chile), and a third of them are estimated to be undocumented or socioeconomically vulnerable. These migrants tend to work in informal jobs and to live in poor quality, overcrowded buildings.…

Mental health of victims of trafficking: a right, a need and a service

Commentary on: Ottisova et al. (2016). Prevalence and risk of violence and the mental, physical and sexual health problems associated with human trafficking: an updated systematic review. Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciencies, doi:10.1017/S2045796016000135. 

Mental health of migrants in low-skilled work and the families they leave behind

Migration is rapidly reshaping the world. Low-skilled labour migration, in particular, is driven by disparities in income, wealth, and work opportunities. Labour migrants are increasingly flowing among low-income and middle-income nations in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.1 Migrant workers and the family members they leave behind number about 193 million,1 of whom 52–100 million people are domestic workers in low-skilled, so-called difficult, degrading, and dangerous…

Can migration health assessments become a mechanism for global public health good?

Abstract: Migrant health assessments (HAs) consist of a medical examination to assess a migrant’s health status and to provide medical clearance for work or residency based on conditions defined by the destination country and/or employer. We argue that better linkages between health systems and migrant HA processors at the country level are needed to shift these from being limited as an instrument of determining non-admissibility for purposes of visa issuance, to a process…