Migration, refugees, and health risks

Migration both voluntary and forced is increasing all over the world. People are moving in larger numbers faster and further than at any other time in history. This is happening at a time when many countries are ill-prepared to deal with a changing demography and when policies and attitudes to population movement and immigration are hardening. The health implications of this are many, and, in some cases, illness and death rates associated with migration are exacerbated by a lack of policies needed to make migration a healthy and socially productive process. From a public health point of view, this is having and will continue to have serious ramifications for the people that move, the family they leave behind, and the communities that host the newcomers.