Migration and health

The commonly used variable to analyse risky sexual practices of male migrants is consistent condom use. Literature indicates the importance of economic status and other socio-demographic variables, duration of migration, type of occupation, substance abuse, type of sexual partners and exposure to prevention messages as some of the key explanatory variables. Hitherto, the choice of being in a non-monogamous relationship has been clubbed with the decision to use a condom in analysing the determinants of safe sex behaviour. We assume a two-stage sequential decision-making process to understand risky sex: (a) decision to be in a non-monogamous relationship and (b) the decision to engage in safe sex by choosing to use a condom. The results indicate that fewer variables – except education and knowledge – impact on CCU once selection bias regarding who enters into sexual alliances outside of marriage or regular partners is controlled for.

So far, little work has been systematically documented consequences of migration on maternal and child health in developing countries like India. While, migration has the potential to reduce both the financial and cultural barriers to health-care service utilization. Migration improves the material conditions of households and communities through the infusion of remittances, and it can alter ideational systems and cultural practices through the diffusion of new ideas, attitudes, and behaviours. This study used data from DLHS-3 to investigate the relationship between migration and the utilization of maternal health services at place of origin. The dependent variables are the following: at least 3 ANC, at least 1 TT injection, full ANC, PNC and institutional delivery. Bivariate and binomial logistic regression methods are used to test the relationship between each of the six dependent variables and the migrant status of respondents, i.e., non-migrants and migrants. The results show that the migrants have higher in use of maternal health services compare non-migrant across socio-demographic characteristics. The results from the multivariate regression indicate that women education, wealth, caste, Number of living children and migrant status are significant factors in explaining the differentials in women’s use of health care servic

This paper explores the relationship between place of residence (urban/rural) during childhood and sexual behavior of Malawian men. Data from approximately 1300 men aged 18 to 40 are used in the analysis. Men raised predominantly in rural areas, initiate sex later (approximately 1 year later than those raised predominantly in urban areas), but experience fertility (2.2 children). The relationship between sexual behavior practices and the cumulative amount of time lived in an urban area shows that the longer an individual resides in an urban area the more frequently he will use a condom, after about 10 years the relationship flattens. This suggests that migrants adjust their behavior over time but it is a relatively slow adjustment. In a context with high HIV rates (higher in rural areas) and a high urbanization rate it suggests that HIV prevention policies should be targeted to such groups to accelerate this condom adoption process.

Research on the wellbeing of migrant populations generally focuses on factors related to the receiving country context. At the same time, migrants are increasingly living in transnational families with some of their nuclear family members living in the country of origin. Qualitative transnational migration studies point out that living apart can have wellbeing consequences for migrant parents. This paper examines the wellbeing of parents in transnational child raising arrangements where at least one of their children has remained in the origin country. We investigate the impact of such family arrangements on migrants’ wellbeing using cross-country data on 900 African migrants (Ghanaians, Angolans, and Nigerians) in three European countries (The Netherlands, Portugal, and Ireland, respectively). Migrant parents in transnational families are compared with a control group of migrant parents who live with all of their children in the receiving country. Preliminary descriptive results indicate that parents in a transnational child raising arrangements are worse off in their wellbeing compared to parents who live with their children. We use regression analysis to examine whether these results remain after controlling for individual migrant, family, as well as sending and receiving country contextual characteristics.

Migrants are in some aspects regarded as more vulnerable to ill health than others (Quinn, 1994). Studies have shown that while addressing their vulnerability, it is important to make improvements in health and welfare not only for the migrants but also for the receiving society (De Hann, 1999; Gushulak and MacPherson, 2000). It is hence important to study what makes migrants vulnerable to ill health. Assessment of vulnerability to RTIs/STIs among married migrants based on the factors that increases their chances of having RTIs/STIs reveal that out of 513 married migrants, 22 percent are highly vulnerable, in addition to 19 percent of them have even suffered from any of the symptoms of RTIs/STIs. There is also a significant difference in vulnerability to RTIs/STIs between intra-state and inter-state married migrants. Regarding after effect of such problems to those migrants who have ever suffered from it, findings reveals that considerable percentage of female migrants reported that their household work, their sexual life, and their marital life to be affected because of the symptoms of RTIs/STIs. Thus, the findings suggest that not only female migrants who have symptoms of RTIs/STIs have burden on their physical health but other aspects of their life are also affected.

In the last years discrimination has been noted within the context of health care, showing that immigrants are discriminated against when it comes to receiving medical treatment and access to health care services (e.g. Casagrande et. al., 2007). However, so far most studies have been carried out in the United States (e.g. La Veist et. al., 2000). Thus, this studies focuses on perceived race discrimination in health care in Germany, since the migrant minority is growing due to the demographic transition. For this study a survey on patient satisfaction was conducted within three randomly chosen international Christian communities. In this way perceived discrimination to due religion can be excluded. Furthermore no migrants with a Turkish background were taken into account, since numerous studies have shown that they are discriminated again. Therefore this study focuses on other migrant communities than Turkish ones. The questions covered topics on trust towards the physician, satisfaction with the physician and the hospital, perceived health status, health behavior and discrimation- observed one as well as perceived one. The results have shown that indeed migrants feel discriminated against, are less satisfied and observe discrimination more than natives.

Western populations are facing two major challenges today: The integration of the aging population and the increasing amount of immigrants into society. Not just the number of immigrants increases, but also the composition of all demographic cohorts, resulting in new consolidated minorities: elderly and race groups. An increase in the number of minority groups can raise prejudice against them based on the majority’s fear of the increasing importance of the minority which in turn can lead to greater discrimination against the minorities.Given that the forms of discrimination manifested by different groups will depend on perceived cultural norms acquired through personal experience and socialization, developing countries may experience discriminatory behavior towards usthe elderly and migrants quite differently, than Western countries. Discrimination in health care is one of the worst, since health is directly related to mortality. Thus, this project aimed at comparing ageism and racism in medical treatment between Germany, The Netherlands (as Western countries) and Indonesia (as a developing country). Video-based experiments were conducted with 480 physicians, who were evaluating the video showing a physician-patient conversation. As expected patients were evaluated differently depending on their age and race.

This paper aims to explore the associations between the prevalence of some of the most burdening chronic diseases and the risk of poor self-rated health among native and immigrant population in Estonia. Our aim is to understand to what extent the contribution of selected chronic conditions to population health status has changed in two recent decades and whether the diseases that have the largest effects on poor self rated health differs between two population sub-groups. In addition, we focus on two subsequent decades – 1990s and 2000s – in order to explain the effect of rapid societal transition and more stable period on population health status.

Regional compositional changes due to migration can modify the distribution of health outcomes, death rates, life style factors and socioeconomic characteristics. The majority of studies on internal or short distances migrations focused on the effect of migration on geographical health and mortality variation. By contrast there is still little empirical evidence on the effect of internal migrations on the patterns of socioeconomic inequality in mortality.
The aim of this paper is to investigate whether the internal post war migration in Italy affected the pattern of mortality inequality by socioeconomic status, from age 50 on, in one of the main areas of destination, the north-western industrial city of Turin, where many individuals sought jobs in the car factories.
We hypothesize that the interplay of the healthy migrant effect and faster health selection due to exposure to higher mortality risk might have homogenized the men population, thus reducing differences in susceptibility to death. We also hypothesize that the process had an impact also reducing the differences in mortality risk by education level and that these processes must have affected more strongly men than women because because they were more passive actors in the migratory decisions and less heavily involved in the industrialization process.

Using the New Immigrant Survey and the National Health Interview Survey, this paper examines whether Asian immigrants in the United States, especially those who are less-educated, are selected on positive health compared to non-migrants in their sending countries and to their U.S.-born counterparts. If positive health selection is most prevalent for less educated Asian immigrants, it can help to explain why Asian immigrants in the U.S. have a weaker education gradient in health. Results show that most Asian immigrants are healthier compared to people in their home countries and to their U.S.-born counterparts. More-educated immigrants are more likely to have better health than people in their sending countries. Yet, the effect of nativity on health does not significantly vary by education level. Other possible reasons for the weaker education gradient in health for Asian immigrants are acculturation, different education and health relationship in sending countries and lower returns to education.