The European Journal of Public Health
Volume 24 Issue 5 October 2014
http://eurpub.oxfordjournals.org/content/current

Editorial
The health of migrants and ethnic minorities in Europe: where do we go from here?
Oliver Razum1 and Karien Stronks2
Author Affiliations
1 Department of Epidemiology & International Public Health, School of Public Health, Bielefeld University, 33501 Bielefeld, Germany
2 Department of Public Health, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, 1100 DD Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Abstract
Between 0.4 (Slovakia) and 15.3% (Estonia) of the European population were born in a non-EU-27 (European Union-27) country,1 and this proportion is increasing in most member states. Given that migrants and ethnic minorities do not always have equal access to health services, their rights to health and health care are important public health topics. To improve the basis for further research and advocacy, these issues were discussed at the fifth EUPHA European Conference on Migrant and Minority Ethnic Health in Granada, Spain, in April 2014 (more details of the conference, including the programme and the volume of abstracts, can be found at http://www.eupha-migranthealthconference.com/).
Some of the lessons learned
The health of migrants and ethnic minorities should not be approached from a paternalistic perspective and with a focus only on deficits. On a population level, migrants (and also some ethnic minority groups) are comparatively healthier—especially with regard to non-communicable diseases such as cancer.2 Migrants and ethnic minorities are of course also exposed to health risks, such as limited accessibility to health care, …

Roma health is global ill health
Róza Ádány1,2,3
Author Affiliations
1 Department of Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Public Health, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary
2 MTA-DE Public Health Research Group of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary
3 WHO Collaborating Centre on Vulnerability and Health, Faculty of Public Health, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary
Abstract
The accompanying paper by Kühlbrandt et al.1 begins to fill the void of quantitative data on access to health insurance coverage by Roma in Central Eastern European (CEE) countries. Survey data from 12 CEE countries clearly show that Roma, Europe’s largest ethnic minority, comprising up to 12% of the population of some of these countries, are significantly less likely to have health insurance than non-Roma in all countries except Slovakia and Serbia. The share of Roma without coverage reaches almost 30% in Bosnia–Herzegovina, over 40% in Bulgaria and Romania and 59.7% and 67.7% in Moldova and Albania, respectively. Throughout the region, Roma face poverty, poor access to education, high levels of unemployment and social exclusion. All of these might be expected to impact adversely on their health. Yet, …

The right of access to health care for undocumented migrants: a revision of comparative analysis in the European context
Amets Suess, Isabel Ruiz Pérez, Ainhoa Ruiz Azarola, and Joan Carles March Cerdà
Eur J Public Health (2014) 24 (5): 712-720 doi:10.1093/eurpub/cku036
Abstract