[Health-related self-help of immigrants in Germany. Chances, barriers, potential]

Migrants in Germany participate in health-related self-help groups nearly as frequently as native-born Germans--as long as they have good German language skills and are widely integrated into the main society. However, the situation is different for those migrants who are not or only slightly integrated. Mother-tongue self-help groups of ethnic minorities would offer good chances for health-related self-management and coping; however, these groups are rare. This can partly be explained by the lack of knowledge of many migrants about support possibilities for self-help groups, also because the term "self-help" has no equivalent in many languages. On the other hand, there are many barriers for self-help activities: false shame attributed to certain health problems, fear of de-anonymization in ethnic communities, different concepts of health and illness, a lack of judging the potential of one's own competencies and self-efficacy, and particularly illiteracy. This article describes the relevance of self-help among migrants with special regard to self-organized migrant networks and outlines the current state of discussion within the self-help stakeholders. Finally, potential multipliers, networking examples and qualification measures for promotion of health-related self-help among migrants are presented.