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Sexual and reproductive health (SRH) incorporates prevention of unplanned pregnancies, unsafe abortions, and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). The sourcing, understanding and application of related information are important for health and this defines sexual and reproductive health literacy (SRHL). Health care utilization rates among Asylum Seekers and Refugees (ASRs) may not be high and they are unlikely to seek sufficient SRH information and care in their host countries, leaving some needs unmet. No SRHL research related to Scotland’s Asylum Seeking and Refugee Women (ASRW) exists. In this qualitative study, the purpose of this paper is to explore the SRHL-related views and experiences of adult ASRW living in Glasgow and their views on assistance required to improve their SRHL.

In total, 14 semi-structured interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed and qualitative thematic analysis employed.

Five themes and 13 sub-themes with four key findings highlighted: experience of unmet SRHL needs, similarities and differences in the source of SRH information, SRH views and behaviours influenced by cultural and religious factors, barriers and facilitators to accessing SRH information/care and developing SRHL.

This was a small scale qualitative study affording limited transferability. The work addressed a highly sensitive topic among women from conservative home country cultures.

Routine collection of sexual and reproductive health data by the NHS should be explored for this group. NHS staff should be aware of the rights of asylum seekers, Refugees and failed asylum seekers, to NHS healthcare free at the point of delivery in Scotland (National Health Service, 2019; Scottish Government, 2018), and be well trained in the likely religious and cultural norms of these groups. Host communities should consider improving access to SRH information and care in ASRWs first languages.

The study identified weaknesses in the opportunities for social integration afforded this group and the coordination of existing social opportunities. The stigmatization of immigrants in the UK is well understood and has repercussions for many individuals and societal organizations implicated in the promotion of this.

This paper addresses a very sensitive topic with women from conservative cultures. With few publications in this area, and none pertaining to Scotland, the paper makes a small but original contribution that might be considered a starting point for researchers and relevant services in Scotland.

In this study, the authors investigated ways to cultivate resilience through a social justice lens among ethnic minorities against COVID-19 in Hong Kong.

A qualitative (case study) methodology was adopted to interview 15 social service providers from diverse ethnic backgrounds serving disadvantaged ethnic minority groups (South and Southeast Asian groups from low-income households, foreign domestic workers and asylum seekers/refugees).

Two major protective factors were identified, contributing to the development of resilience among diverse ethnic groups: (1) individual-based resilience (including being optimistic) and (2) socio-environmental factors (including ongoing support from strong family, peer and religious settings' support, consulates' support, on-going material and nonmaterial donations, support of young volunteers and importance of online connection and communication) using the integration of resilience and social justice frameworks.

This study showed that the protective factors were found to dynamically interact with each other and the environment. The present study recommends additional culturally sensitive service and policy implications for preventing the long-term impact of mass crises among Hong Kong's marginalized minorities.

The literature tends to use ‘asylum seeker’ and ‘refugee’ interchangeably, creating uncertainty about the mental health of asylum seekers. However, asylum seekers occupy a unique position in British society which differentiates them from people with refugee status and which may have implications for their mental health. For example, ‘asylum seekers’ are supported and accommodated in dispersal areas under the National Asylum Support Service and they are not entitled to work. This mixed‐methods study investigated asylum seekers' symptoms of psychological distress, using mental health screening questionnaires (N = 29) and asylum seekers' subjective experiences of the asylum process, its potential impacts on their mental health, and participants' suggestions for tackling mental health needs, using in‐depth interviews (N = 8). Asylum seekers, refugees and practitioners working with asylum seekers were consulted from the outset regarding the cultural sensitivity of the measures used. Given the potential limitations of using ‘idioms of distress’ across cultures, interview data provided rich descriptive accounts which helped locate the mental health needs that the asylum seekers experienced in the specificities of each participant's social context. Asylum seekers originated from 13 countries. The results revealed that psychological distress is common among asylum seekers (for example anxiety and post‐traumatic stress), but so are post‐migratory living difficulties (for example accommodation, discrimination, worry about family back home, not being allowed to work). They also report mixed experiences of health and social care services. These results suggest that asylum seekers' unique social position may affect their mental health. Implications for practice are presented and potential limitations highlighted.

Asylum seekers, refugees and immigrants’ access to healthcare vary in South Africa and Cape Town due to unclear legal status. The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the source of this variation, the divergence between the 1996 South African Constitution, the immigration laws, and regulations and to describe its harmful consequences.

Based on legal and ethnographic research, this paper documents the disjuncture between South African statutes and regulations and the South African Constitution regarding refugees and migrants’ access to healthcare. Research involved examining South African jurisprudence, the African Charter, and United Nations’ materials regarding rights to health and health care access, and speaking with civil society organizations and healthcare providers. These sources inform the description of the immigrant access to healthcare in Cape Town, South Africa.

Asylum-seekers and refugees are entitled to health and emergency care; however, hospital administrators require documentation (up-to-date permits) before care can be administered. Many immigrants – especially the undocumented – are often unable to obtain care because of a lack of papers or because of “progressive realization,” the notion that the state cannot presently afford to provide treatment in accordance with constitutional rights. These explanations have put healthcare providers in an untenable position of not being able to treat patients, including some who face fatal conditions.

The research is limited by the fact that South African courts have not adjudicated a direct challenge to being refused care at healthcare facility on the basis of legal status. This limits the ability to know how rights afforded to “everyone” within the South African Constitution will be interpreted with respect to immigrants seeking healthcare. The research is also limited by the non-circulation of healthcare admissions policies among leading facilities in the Cape Town region where the case study is based.

Articulation of the disjuncture between the South African Constitution and the immigration laws and regulations allows stakeholders and decision-makers to reframe provincial and municipal policies about healthcare access in terms of constitutional rights and the practical limitations accommodated through progressive realization.

In South Africa, immigration statutes and regulations are inconsistent and deemed unconstitutional with respect to the treatment of undocumented migrants. Hospital administrators are narrowly interpreting the laws to instruct healthcare providers on how to treat patients and whom they can treat. These practices need to stop. Access to healthcare must be structured to comport with the constitutional right afforded to everyone, and with progressive realization pursued through a non – discriminatory policy regarding vulnerable immigrants.

This paper presents a unique case study that combines legal and social science methods to explore a common and acute question of health care access. The case is novel and instructive insofar as South Africa has not established refugee camps in response to rising numbers of refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants. South Africans thus confront a “first world” question of equitable access to healthcare within their African context and with limited resources in a climate of increasing xenophobia.

Immigrants, asylum seekers and refugees living in Europe face a number of challenges in accessing or using health information and healthcare services available in their host countries. To resolve these issues and deliver the necessary services, providers must take a comprehensive approach to better understand the types of health information and healthcare services that these individuals need, seek and use. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to develop that comprehensive approach.

In this paper, a systematic literature review of peer-reviewed publications was performed, with 3.013 articles collected from various databases. A total of 57 qualifying papers on studies conducted in Europe were included in the review after applying the predefined inclusion and exclusion requirements, screening processes and eliminating duplicates. The information seeking and communication model (ISCM) was used in the analysis.

The findings revealed that while many health information and healthcare services are accessible in Europe for immigrants, asylum seekers and refugees, many of these individuals are unaware of their existence or how to access them. While our findings do not specify what health-related information these groups need, use or seek, they do suggest the importance and value of providing mental health, sexual health and HIV, as well as pregnancy and childbirth information and services. Furthermore, according to our results, health information services should be fact-based, easy to understand and raise awareness about healthcare structure and services available in Europe for this vulnerable population.

This study has a range of practical implications, including (1) highlighting the need for mental health and behavioural health services and (2) stressing the value of addressing cultural context and religious values while investigating (health) information seeking of people with foreign background.

This is one of the first studies to systematically review and examine the behaviour of immigrants, asylum seekers and refugees in relation to health information and healthcare services in the European context.

Through the overview of studies on social representations of forced migrants (socio-cultural level of analysis), the purpose of this paper is to highlight how the variables implicated at the macro levels of analysis may affect the way social and health workers relate to and care for forced migrants (inter-personal level of analysis), as well as the settlement process of forced migrants and their identity reconstruction during the post-migration period.

The narrative review analyses empirical studies from peer-reviewed journals in the field of social psychology that address forced migration. Indeed, the framework used for analysing this literature is the interplay within different levels of analysis, as proposed by Willem Doise’s (1982) using the socio-psychological approach.

Psychosocial factors play influential roles on structuring the way natives health and social professionals relate with forced migrants: among others, needs related to possible traumatising processes are attributed to forced migrants by natives providers. Therefore, identity negotiation process in the forced migration shows a tendency of migrants to reshape the definition of the self within those narrative boundaries that would ensure the protection by the law and that reinforce the social representation of the “medicalised” victim.

The review would represent a possibility to reflect around dynamics created by the complex interplay within different social actors that contact during the settlement process of forced migrants inside host societies.

Between 2012 and 2016, the Government of Canada modified health insurance for refugees and asylum seekers. In Quebec, this resulted in refusals of care and uncertainties about publicly reimbursed services, despite guaranteed coverage for people with this status under the provincial plan. The Chronic Viral Illness Service (CVIS) at the McGill University Health Centre in Montreal continued to provide care to refugees and asylum seekers living with HIV. The purpose of this paper is to explain how and why challenges brought by this policy change could be overcome.

A qualitative case study was conducted using interviews with patients and staff members, observation sessions and a review of media, documents and articles. A discussion group validated the interpretation of preliminary results.

The CVIS provides patient-centered care through a multidisciplinary team. It collectively responds to medical, social and legal issues specific to refugees. Its organizational culture and expertise explain the sustained provision of care. The team’s empathetic view of patients, anchored in the service’s history, care for men who have sex with men and commitment to human rights, is key. A culture of care developed over time thanks to the commitment of exemplary figures. Because they countered the team’s values, changes in refugee healthcare coverage strengthened the service’s culture of care. However, the healthcare system reform launched in 2014 in Quebec is perceived as jeopardizing the culture of care, as it makes, refugee and asylum-seeker patients a non-lucrative venture for providers.

This research analyzes the origin of sustained provision of care to refugees and asylum seekers living with HIV through the lens of culture of care. It considers the historical and political contexts in which this culture developed.

There are ongoing concerns that asylum seekers who have been tortured and who suffer trauma‐related mental disorders are being refused protection by countries in which they seek asylum. The study described here assessed a consecutive sample of recently arrived asylum seekers attending immigration agents in Sydney, Australia, using a series of structured measures. Participants were followed up to assess the outcomes of their refugee applications. The 73 participants, who had resided in Australia for an average of 4.3 months, reported high rates of torture (51%), and that group was at highest risk of suffering a combination of post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and major depression, a response pattern associated with substantial levels of psychosocial disability. Neither past torture nor current psychiatric disorder influenced the outcomes of refugee applications. The study raises further concerns that tortured asylum seekers and others with trauma‐related mental disorder may be at risk of repatriation to their countries of origin.

While efforts to mainstream collection of ethnicity in routine health datasets have gathered pace since the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000, relatively little attention has focused on the capture of migrants, and data on asylum seekers and refugees are even more sparse. There is negligible coverage in the key datasets for primary and secondary care, and only a few of the new contract datasets to support the National Service Frameworks accord importance to the migrant population. Some of the communicable disease data collections record country of birth, but its incompleteness is a drawback. Given the growing size of the non‐UK‐born population and the accumulating evidence on the health and health care needs of the migrant population, country of birth merits a place alongside other access variables such as age, sex, ethnicity, socioeconomic status and place of residence in routine data collection. While record linkage studies offer some scope, and there is currently a focus on obtaining improved migration statistics in the forthcoming census and other data flows, health and social care sources remain a neglected area.