[The faces of migrant health in France]

The pathologies encountered by migrants are varied and depend on many factors such as sex, age, country of origin, migration conditions, administrative status, living conditions in France and the year of arrival. There are imported diseases such as tuberculosis or chronic hepatitis B, congenital as sickle cell disease, consequent to the difficulties encountered during the migration course -psychological disorders and malnutrition in particular-, acquired on the French territory in connection with hardship like scabies or nearly one in two HIV infections, but also related to the adoption of deleterious dietary habits and the consumption of tobacco and alcohol that can potentiate certain diseases such as diabetes and hypertension. There is no clinical specificity of migrants' health but reflexes to be acquired in relation to the epidemiological and clinical knowledge that varies from one group to another. The frequency of certain often asymptomatic diseases such as hepatitis B, schistosomiasis or hypertension justifies the proposal of a systematic health check-up for all migrants and immigrants. Migration for health reasons remains, for its part, a minority reason for migration to France.