Published on behalf of Dan Tran, UC San Diego Chapter
Conducting health studies with human research subjects is never an easy task. It is even more difficult when the subjects are moving from place to place and from country to country. Yet, this is the daunting task that epidemiologists who work with transnational migrant populations face. Epidemiology is the study of how disease and associated risk factors are distributed in populations. The transitory nature of these populations, combined with varying levels of trust in governmental and non-governmental institutions, serves to complicate the ability to study and quantify the health of migrants.
A migrant is generally defined a person who moves from place to place. This article focuses on long-term migration where people move and stay in a country longer than a year. They can be divided into several groups depending on what category of migrant type they are assigned to by various national and international agencies:
- Refugees are migrants who are forced to flee their homes due to fears of persecution.
- Asylum seekers are those who aim to seek asylum, which is protection from being deported to a country where they face harm, but unlike refugees have not been processed yet. Procedures for applying for and being approved for asylum vary from country to country.
- Economic migrants are those who move to seek employment.
- International students migrate to further their education.
- Unfortunately, there are forced migrants who are compelled to move from place to place due to human trafficking and other forms of modern-day slavery. Migrants who are trafficked face a variety of physical and psychological health issues.
It’s important to note that these categories tend to overlap and are fluid. Migrants in general face similar obstacles to accessing healthcare, such as discrimination in host countries, language and cultural barriers, and concerns about paying for medical treatments.
According to a report done by the International Office of Migration, there were an estimated 272 million international migrants worldwide as of 2020. Epidemiology can help determine types of health issues and their prevalence within specific populations of migrants. The data from epidemiological studies can help national and international organizations determine how to best serve migrants. Given the increased volume of movement of people and their communicable pathogens, studying the health of migrants is critical to the early prevention and treatment of disease. However, migrant populations can be difficult to study for various reasons. Throughout history, migrants have been associated with filth and disease, such as Chinese migrants to the US. This stigma discourages migrant communities from participating in health studies that would provide insight into disease prevalence and risk factors within communities. Another issue that complicates the analysis of migrant health is that in a lot of studies, the health statuses of migrants during certain stages of migration, such as pre-migration, may not be fully researched. Nevertheless, reaching out to these communities and researching them can provide data that empowers them and allows them to decide how to address health issues.
An example of a migrant population being the subject of epidemiological research is the Rohingya of Bangladesh during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally from Myanmar (Burma), they have sought new lives after government persecution and violence. It was found that several risk factors make them particularly vulnerable to contracting the virus, such as low awareness of the virus and how it is transmitted, limited technological access to learn more about preventative measures, and crowded living conditions within refugee camps. In response to these findings, the refugees are spearheading their own responses to the pandemic, including teaching others and setting up treatment centers dedicated to COVID-19 that are still functional during monsoons.
Studying the health of migrants who move across borders is difficult due to the power dynamics between them, the host society in which they live in, and researchers. Millions of people are projected to be displaced from their homes due to climate change. The current pandemic has provided insight into how to study these populations in order to prepare for future outbreaks.
