Mobility, Vulnerability and Health Challenges

Vulnerability to ill health is an issue facing the migrant population in urban areas. Though opportunities in terms of better health services are available in urban areas, migrants have little choice but to live and work in... [ view full abstract ]

Vulnerability to ill health is an issue facing the migrant population in urban areas. Though opportunities in terms of better health services are available in urban areas, migrants have little choice but to live and work in unsafe conditions that result in exposure to infectious and non-communicable diseases, besides accidents, violence and abuse. These in turn have implications in terms of mental and psychosocial well-being.

An attempt is made in this paper to understand the linkages between migration and health status and the initiatives to address the emerging issues in developing countries using the available reports and data including World Migration Report besides that of UN Habitat and WHO.

Migrants are left out of public health services and vulnerable urban migrant populations include those who do not have a regular residence status, and those with specific health needs. WHO and UN-Habitat (2010) have identified a “triple threat” that consists of infectious diseases that thrive in poor and overcrowded urban environments; non-communicable diseases that are exacerbated by unhealthy lifestyles followed in urban areas and taken up in the course of settling in cities; and injuries and violence due to dangerous road traffic and unsafe working and living conditions.


The barriers include : Lack of regular legal status, Fear of deportation, Xenophobic and discriminatory attitudes, Economic factors, Language , Exclusion of migrants from health systems, Lack of health insurance coverage coupled with high costs of health services and Low levels of health literacy and immunisation, negative or abusive attitudes of health staff towards migrant patients. Migrants are more vulnerable to NCDs and Psychosocial vulnerabilities.

There is an urgent need for improving migrants’ health in cities through migrant inclusive health systems in terms of state of health and accessibility to quality health-care services including strong outreach and referral systems, formal policies of inclusion.