{"id":21789,"date":"2012-10-30T10:45:34","date_gmt":"2012-10-30T09:45:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/?p=21789"},"modified":"2012-10-30T10:45:35","modified_gmt":"2012-10-30T09:45:35","slug":"manuel-carballo-protecting-the-health-of-europes-migrants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2012\/10\/30\/manuel-carballo-protecting-the-health-of-europes-migrants\/","title":{"rendered":"Manuel Carballo: Protecting the health of Europe’s migrants"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Migration has always been a source of population growth in Europe, and in\u00a0recent decades it has become the principal driver of urban growth throughout\u00a0much of the EU, if not Europe in general. Given the continuing decline in\u00a0fertility and the rapidly ageing nature of Europe\u2019s domestic situation, migration can be\u00a0expected to continue growing as a way of compensating for the loss of labour\u00a0and taxpayers. Despite the importance of migration as an essential source\u00a0of socioeconomic and demographic stability, however, health policy makers\u00a0and planners have largely overlooked the complex nature of the migration\u00a0process, and have failed to take into account its many positive and\u00a0potentially negative health and healthcare implications. As a result\u00a0relatively little is being done to promote and protect the health of the 40\u00a0or so million people who fit the definition of \u201cmigrant\u201d living in and\u00a0contributing to European social and economic development.<\/p>\n

One of the outcomes of this benign neglect is that today relatively little\u00a0is known about the health and health needs of migrants in Europe. One of\u00a0the difficulties in understanding the phenomenon better is that the term migrant\u00a0covers a variety of people on the move, including refugees, asylum\u00a0seekers, legal and undocumented economic migrants. The backgrounds and\u00a0migration histories of these different groups are sufficiently distinct that\u00a0aggregating them under one single rubric can be misleading, and more must be\u00a0done to look at them as distinct entities. What is nevertheless beginning\u00a0to be understood, however, is that the process of uprooting, transition\u00a0through other countries before finally trying to integrate into societies of\u00a0final destination is replete with potential health pitfalls. Thus despite\u00a0the fact that most migrants tend to be young and relatively healthy when\u00a0they leave their countries of origin, the movement itself and the social\u00a0conditions in which they are ultimately received, housed, and expected to\u00a0work, can quickly erode whatever good health they originally enjoyed.<\/p>\n

Migrants appear to be at greater risk of both communicable and\u00a0non-communicable diseases than the national populations that host them.\u00a0Some of these diseases, such as TB, have always been associated with people\u00a0moving from poor socioeconomic backgrounds, but there is growing evidence\u00a0that a proportion of the new cases that are reported well after arrival in\u00a0host countries are the products of the housing conditions and poor overall\u00a0quality of life many low income migrants are exposed to in the countries of\u00a0resettlement. The high rates of viral hepatitis seen in some migrant\u00a0groups may be much more a product of where migrants came from, but again\u00a0there is also a suggestion that much of the hepatitis B seen in some migrant\u00a0groups is being transmitted after they arrive.<\/p>\n

Non communicable diseases are also a major challenge to migrants. Mental\u00a0health indicators are consistently poor and because migrants come from\u00a0cultures that are often poorly or not at all understood by healthcare\u00a0providers, misdiagnosis and inappropriate treatment remains a major\u00a0problem. For a mixture of reasons, migrants also seem to have a high risk of\u00a0developing obesity and type 2 diabetes. When they do develop these and\u00a0other diseases, moreover, migrants tend to have worse outcomes, suggesting\u00a0that they may have greater difficulty dealing with their problems because of\u00a0a lack of familiarity with local healthcare systems and treatment cultures.<\/p>\n

Manuel Carballo<\/strong> is the executive director of the International Centre for\u00a0Migration, Health and Development, Geneva, Switzerland.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Migration has always been a source of population growth in Europe, and in\u00a0recent decades it has become the principal driver of urban growth throughout\u00a0much of the EU, if not Europe in general. Given the continuing decline in\u00a0fertility and the rapidly ageing nature of Europe\u2019s domestic situation, migration can be\u00a0expected to continue growing as a way […]<\/p>\n

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