Workshop: migration and health in the European Union.

Migrants comprise a growing share of European populations. However, all too often their situation is compounded by immigration and citizenship regulations, socio-economic deprivation, cultural differences, language barriers and problems in realizing their human rights and in accessing health and other basic services. There is a need for tailored health policies, but robust data on the health needs of migrants and how best to meet them are scarce, partly because routine data on migrant health are only available in few European countries and understandings of who constitutes a migrant differ widely. Furthermore, the number of countries in Europe with well developed policies on the health of migrants is still small. This workshop will start bridging this information gap by presenting preliminary findings of a European research project undertaken in 2010–11 by the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, the EUPHA Section on Migrant and Ethnic Minority Health, and the International Organization for Migration. The project brings together available evidence on the health needs of migrants in the European Union and how these can be met most effectively. Particular attention is being paid to the health needs of the most vulnerable groups of migrants who also face the highest barriers to accessing services, such as asylum seekers, refugees, undocumented migrants and victims of trafficking. The workshop will explore four key topics of migration and health in the European Union. It will start with a review of the legal rights of migrants to health care and their implementation. This will be followed by an analysis of migrants’ access to health care. The last two presentations explore current migrant health policies in the European Union and examples of best practice of health care for migrants. The presentations will be short enough to allow for plenary participation and debate.