Unity in the fields of migration, ethnicity, race and health
Authors: Raj Bhopal
Journal: The Lancet Public Health (2018)

In an era of financial austerity and rising racial tensions, it is imperative to preserve and enhance the progress made in the study of migration,1WHOHealth of migrants: resetting the agenda. World Health Organization, Geneva2017Google Scholar ethnicity, race,2Bhopal RS Migration, ethnicity, race and health in multicultural societies.2nd edn. Oxford University Press, Oxford2014Google Scholar and indigenous3Stephens C Porter J Nettleton C Willis R Disappearing, displaced, and undervalued: a call to action for Indigenous health worldwide.Lancet. 2006; 367: 2019-2028Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (218) Google Scholar and Roma4Executive Agency for Health and ConsumersReport on migrant and ethnic minorities health projects funded by European Health Programme 2003–2009 focusing on Roma ethnic group. Executive Agency for Health and Consumers, Luxembourg2013Google Scholar health. There are, however, danger signs at both the political level, such as the erection or threat of walls and fences across country boundaries, and the health level, such as the deterioration that occurs in the health status of migrants with increasing length of stay and across generations.5Vandenheede H Willaert D De Grande H Simoens S Vanroelen C Mortality in adult immigrants in the 2000s in Belgium: a test of the ‘healthy-migrant’ and the ‘migration-as-rapid-health-transition’ hypotheses.Trop Med Int Health. 2015; 20: 1832-1845Crossref PubMed Scopus (59) Google Scholar Resources for these subjects are sparse and are routed through specific networks and services. Research and health interventions for recent migrants, for example, are mostly set up afresh and not integrated with long-established policies and strategies for settled populations, whether indigenous (eg, Maori), those established for centuries (eg, Roma in Europe and African Americans in the USA), or for ethnic minority populations who have largely become part of society (eg, Indians in the UK). This fragmentation is regrettable, particularly at a time when progress is threatened. The common ground between these subjects is extensive, such as in the quest for equity, social equality and an end to discrimination, fairness in the delivery services, and identification of ways to enable effective communication across language and cultural barriers. To enhance progress and develop a new vision for common endeavour, the University of Edinburgh, European Public Health Association, and NHS Health Scotland have partnered to provide a global forum for dialogue and debate at the 1st World Congress on Migration, Ethnicity, Race and Health in Edinburgh to be held on May 17–19, 2018. Participants will endeavour, possibly for the first time, to integrate the concepts, theory, and practice from the study of migration, ethnicity, and race with those for the health of indigenous and Roma populations. The congress will include a reflective and critical evaluation of whether a new international academic and professional society is needed to create a united front in anticipation of multiple future challenges. In moving from the idea of a multicultural city to a nearly universally multicultural world, the challenges might even be on a par with the connected issue of climate change,6Whitmee S Haines A Beyrer C et al.Safeguarding human health in the Anthropocene epoch: report of The Rockefeller Foundation-Lancet Commission on planetary health.Lancet. 2015; 386: 1973-2028Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (1130) Google Scholar since both are a product of globalisation. I am the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the World Congress in Migration, Ethnicity, Race and Health and a director of the company set up to run it. Protecting migrant womenEurope is facing massive movements of refugees and migrants—women, girls, men, and boys of all ages. The journey to Europe is perilous; migrants often face high levels of violence, extortion, and exploitation along the way, reaching a paroxysm with recent reports of slave auctions in Libya. Full-Text PDF Open AccessNo public health without migrant health1 billion people in the world today are on the move. There are an estimated 244 million international migrants (3·3% of the world's population)—an increase from 155 million in 2000. Internal migration is most prevalent, with more than 740 million people who have migrated within their own country of birth. According to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), the UN migration agency, we are facing the highest levels of forced displacement globally recorded since World War 2, with a dramatic increase in the number of refugees, asylum-seekers, and internally displaced people across various regions of the world. Full-Text PDF Open Access