Ensuring Health Equity: Cultural Competence and Social Determinants in Migrant Care

Dear Colleagues,

In a world marked by increasing migration flows and deep social inequalities, healthcare systems face the challenge of ensuring equitable, accessible, and culturally appropriate care for all. This Special Issue of Healthcare brings together contributions that address, from a critical and multidisciplinary perspective, the importance of integrating cultural competence and the analysis of social and structural determinants in healthcare for migrants.

This Special Issue is an invitation to rethink care from an intercultural perspective, committed to human rights and the transformation of health systems toward more inclusive, sensitive, and sustainable models.

This Special Issue aims to achieve the following goals:

1. To highlight the health inequalities affecting migrants, analyzing the impact of social and structural determinants on their access to, experience with, and outcomes in health systems.
2. Promote the development and application of cultural competence at different levels of healthcare, as a key tool for improving quality, safety, and equity in care.
3. Promote the exchange of experiences, research, and best practices that integrate intercultural, participatory, and social justice-centered approaches in clinical and community settings, primarily in healthcare practices.
4. Promote critical and transformative reflection on the role of health professionals as agents of change in the face of structural and cultural barriers that perpetuate inequity.
5. Promote innovation in healthcare training by promoting active, intercultural, and critical methodologies that prepare healthcare professionals to address cultural diversity and health inequalities.
6. Promote the cross-cutting integration of cultural competence and the social determinants of health into training programs for health professionals, as part of transformative healthcare committed to equity.

The articles presented here will explore experiences, intervention models, theoretical frameworks, and transformation proposals that place health equity at the heart of clinical practice, healthcare management, and research. Special emphasis is placed on the role of healthcare professionals as agents of change, capable of identifying barriers, promoting equitable access to services, and building caring relationships based on respect, empathy, and social justice.

This Special Issue aims to bring together research, experiences, and critical reflections that address the challenges and opportunities in healthcare for migrants from a perspective that integrates cultural competency, the social determinants of health, and a commitment to equity.

For this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Models of cultural competence in clinical and community settings;
• Social and structural determinants of health in migrant populations;
• Intercultural care experiences in primary and hospital care;
• Training of health professionals in cultural competence;
• Public policies and equitable access to health services;
• Participatory research and intercultural methodologies;
• Mediation, translation, and community support strategies;
• Ethical and social justice approaches to migrant care.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Prof. Dr. Maria Idoia Ugarte-Gurruxaga
Prof. Dr. Fernando Jesús Plaza del Pino
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Healthcare is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• health equity
• cultural competence
• social determinants of health
• migration and health
• cultural diversity
• healthcare
• intercultural care
• social justice
• structural barriers