Migrant Health and Quality of Life

Dear Colleagues,

Feelings of displacement and poor quality of life—including physically, socially, psychologically—are particularly heightened for migrant communities, especially at a time when the world is grappling with a global pandemic. With about one billion people on the move globally—many of whom are impacted by the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic—and increased mental health diagnoses within many migrant communities since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a need to build research capacity in addressing the health needs of socially disadvantaged migrant populations globally. Nonetheless, there are reasons to believe that these health and quality of life concerns may have worsened for migrants due to their loss of resources during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the changes that followed this loss. While many citizens were anchored at their home countries, having some support from their governments and families, voluntary and non-voluntary migrants—including international students, skilled and unskilled migrant workers, refugees—were left, in most host countries, to grapple with the drastic changes and losses that came with the COVID-19 pandemic. These sudden pandemic-related changes led to considerable loss of resources within migrant communities, including but not limited to their loss of economic (e.g., financial stability, job loss), interpersonal (e.g., relationship losses, heightened social isolation), physical (e.g., displacement, nutritional deficiencies, travel and home-bond restrictions), and psychological (e.g., control over one’s life, sense of purpose, anxiety about the future in host countries) resources. The loss of physical, economic, interpersonal, and psychological resources due to the COVID-19 pandemic make migrant populations susceptible to increased stress levels and decline in health and quality of life. To fully understand the impact of the global COVID-19 health crisis on migrant populations around the world, this Special Issue will consider the multifaceted and broader contexts through which to measure and conceptualise migrant health and flourishing. Additionally, given the continuing scarcity of health research in socially disadvantaged migrant contexts, this Special Issue will provide a solid and enduring foundation to the establishment of a new critical mass in the field of migrant health and flourishing, with a commitment to influence policy and practice. A direct consequence of this issue will be 1) knowledge creation and dissemination (innovative, high-quality evidence-based research on the social, economic, and cultural factors that influence migrant health and flourishing); 2) knowledge translation (translating research into practice, program, and policies in relation to migrant health and flourishing); 3) collaboration (growing international collaborations for improving migrant health and flourishing); and iv) capacity building in health and socially disadvantaged migrant communities around the world. Cross-disciplinary empirical and theoretical contributions and policy papers, from across the health, social, and behavioural sciences, addressing any of these objectives through various theories and methodologies are welcomed.

Contributors should initially submit an abstract of up to 300 words and a brief biography by 20 June 2021 to the editor. Full papers will be due by 15 November 2021. Articles should not exceed 7000 words (including references).

Dr. Victor Counted
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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