Migrants no health care burden – study
A NEW study has dismissed as a myth perceptions that migrants are a burden to health systems across the world.
The UCL–Lancet Commission on Migration and Health: the health of a world on the move shows stereotypes against migrants sometimes leads to unfair policies in most host countries while ignoring migrants’ contributions to economies.
Recently, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi received a backlash from Deputy Public Protector Kevin Malunga after he claimed migrants were a strain on the health system and that the country needed to relook its policies around undocumented migrants.
The Lancet Commission report published earlier this month is the result of two years of study across the world and has refuted claims that migrants are disease carriers and burdens to host countries’ health systems.
One of the contributors to the research is Wits University Professor Steve Tollman, director and co-founder of the MRC/Wits Agincourt Unit.
He contributed to a research paper on global mortality in international migrants. One of the findings of the paper is that: “Contrary to the negative representation of migrants in the media as a burden to health systems, our research provides substantial evidence in support of the mortality advantage of migrants compared with the general population in high-income countries.
“These results therefore challenge misconceptions and policies that do injustice to migrants, representing them as a risk and burden to health systems and society, and instead highlight positive contributions of migration in these countries.”
The commission concludes that international migrants in high-income countries have lower rates of mortality compared to general populations across the majority of disease categories. The study used mortality estimates on more than 15.2 million migrants from 92 countries and found that international migrants had lower rates of deaths for cardiovascular, digestive, endocrine, neoplasms, nervous and respiratory diseases, mental and behavioural disorders and injuries than people in the general population in the receiving country. The only exceptions were for viral hepatitis, tuberculosis, and HIV, and external causes, such as assault, where migrants had increased rates of mortality.
On whether migrants are disease carriers, the report found there was no evidence to back this up.
“Linking health status to migration enforcement also reinforces distrust in the health profession, and limits migrants’ ability to access health care on a non-discriminatory basis.
“The fear of deportation can mean migrants will not seek health care or assistance when needed, hindering individual and public health.”
In practice, health-related enforcement regimes can pressure health workers to act as immigration control agents. The commission notes a growing trend of states limiting migrants’ access to health care, despite commitments to provide “health for all”.
Tollman said: “In the South African context, we have a massive gap in understanding internal migration. Opinion, perception, and political advantage tend to take precedence.”
Through the Lancet process, “we seek to bring data and evidence to bear, to counter prevailing myths and highlight the need to strengthen our understanding – which, in the South African and regional arena, relates directly to internal, often labour, migrants.”
Tollman said it was important that labour migrants access good public healthcare. “We want to take care of our citizens but also of others who cared for us pre-1990s. Resources are finite but universal health coverage doesn’t mean, ‘but not if you’re not one of us’.”