Moving upstream: Changing policy scripts on migrant and ethnic minority health

David Ingleby

Health Policy, 2019, vol. 123, issue 9, 809-817

Abstract: This article uses the concept of ‘policy scripts’ to explore the aims and assumptions underlying policies on migrant and ethnic minority health. Firstly, it analyses the shift in health policies from ‘downstream’ approaches (emphasising health care for the sick and injured) to ‘upstream’ ones (emphasising health protection for the whole population). The field of migrant health has been relatively slow to move upstream. Two factors appear to have impeded this shift: (a) the reluctance of the ‘social determinants of health’ movement to regard migrant status and ethnicity as important causes of health inequities; and (b) the one-sided emphasis on short-term emergency health provisions for migrants arising from the recent increase in forced migration worldwide, in particular the sudden peak in mixed migration to the EU in 2015. The article contends that (a) the usual arguments against treating migration and ethnicity as health determinants do not stand up to critical examination; and (b) the overwhelming emphasis on unauthorised entrants which characterises current discussions of migration policy, including health, is out of all proportion to their volume relative to that of other migrants. Fortunately, recent policy initiatives at UN level have the potential to restore the balance between ‘upstream’ and ‘downstream’ approaches, as well as between unauthorised entry and ‘routine’ migration.

Keywords: Mixed migration; Migrants; Refugees; Ethnic minorities; Health policies; Policy scripts; Social determinants of health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168851019301617
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:hepoli:v:123:y:2019:i:9:p:809-817

DOI: 10.1016/j.healthpol.2019.07.015

Access Statistics for this article

Health Policy is currently edited by Katrien Kesteloot, Mia Defever and Irina Cleemput

More articles in Health Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu () and ().