Public Health Ethics
Volume 8 Issue 2 July 2015
http://phe.oxfordjournals.org/content/current
Special Symposium: Migrant Health

Health of Migrants: Approaches from a Public Health Ethics Perspective
Verina Wild, Deborah Zion, and Richard Ashcroft
Extract
‘How do we know when it is dawn? When we have enough light to recognise, in the face of the stranger, that of our sister.’ 1
In 2013, a number of 230 million international migrants was estimated, of which 51.2 million people were forcibly displaced (UNHCR, 2014; United Nations, 2014). The majority of these refugees reside in the global South, in countries that have difficulties providing health care to their own citizens. However, in countries with functioning health care systems, there are also hundreds of thousands of people who are seeking refuge for example from brutal wars in the Middle East, and in the Horn of Africa. Additionally, an unknown number of undocumented migrants or temporary workers are on the move.

Despite the fact that Europe, the USA and Australia have considerably more resources to support health care (among other social and economic benefits) than other reception countries such as Pakistan and Iran, there is little consensus between or within countries about an acceptable standard of health care for different migrant groups, such as undocumented migrants, asylum seekers, refugees and temporary workers. There is also considerable disagreement about how this health care might be accessed, or the philosophical and human rights positions that underpin discussions concerning access and delivery.

In this edition of Public Health Ethics, we seek to address these concerns. Our conversation began in 2013 at an international symposium at the Brocher Foundation in Switzerland, in which a group of scholars, and experts from non-governmental organizations and international organizations from five continents explored ethical issues related to different migrant groups and health. We focussed particularly on undocumented migrants, asylum seekers and refugees as some of those who can be rendered most vulnerable. The papers published here trace the arc of philosophical debates and practical …