Health and Social Services among International Labor Migrants

Migration from less-developed nations to the United States and Western Europe is steadily increasing, and it is unlikely that this trend will reverse. There are currently over a hundred million immigrants worldwide. And many of these immigrants are in a condition of poverty or near poverty, while many also suffer from poor health.The articles in this collection address the health conditions of international labor migrants and the availability and limitations of human and health...
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Migration from less-developed nations to the United States and Western Europe is steadily increasing, and it is unlikely that this trend will reverse. There are currently over a hundred million immigrants worldwide. And many of these immigrants are in a condition of poverty or near poverty, while many also suffer from poor health.The articles in this collection address the health conditions of international labor migrants and the availability and limitations of human and health services for them. Written by leading social scientists and health professionals from both the United States and the European Union, six of the articles focus on Europe, three on the United States, and two on psychological issues related to immigration.The contributors to this volume, representing a wide variety of disciplines (including medicine, social work, political science, sociology, anthropology, psychology, and biology), are in agreement that the health and human services offered in industrial nations are generally monocultural, and not well suited for migrants from other cultures. One article even arrives at the disquieting conclusion that the mental health services offered to immigrants not only do not respond to their needs, but rather serve to reinforce negative perceptions regarding immigrants from third-world countries.This book represents a timely and urgently needed contribution to the discourse on health services for migrants. It demonstrates that the issues and problems of immigration in the United States and Europe have many commonalities and that much can be learned from examining the experiences, successes, and failures of both.Antonio Ugalde is Professor of Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin and Adjunct Professor at the School of Public Health, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.