Chapter 8 - Examining Migrants’ Health From a Gender Perspective

Abstract

Studies show that there is a healthy immigrant effect; persons who choose to migrate have better health than the native population, but there is a deterioration of health status the longer they reside in the host country. Therefore is migration bad for migrants’ health? Despite having studied numerous variables, such as age, level of studies, civil status, number of family members, number of years in the host country, language proficiency, and discrimination, that are involved in migrants' health, a gender perspective is notably absent from this body of research. As in the general population, migrant women have worse health than migrant men. When it comes to the phenomenon of migration, gender is present throughout the process from the decision to migrate, during migration, and, subsequently, in the country of destination, because women and men do not perform the same jobs in the host countries. Therefore gender-related issues need to be accounted for in order to explain the health differences between men and women, and in this chapter we will analyze the healthy immigrant effect from a gender perspective, because it is not very common to do so. Working conditions, social support, and socioeconomic status affect men and women differently, and they involve different gender inequalities. Furthermore, migrants face different barriers throughout their health care process. Finally, because migration is a very complex phenomenon and because of the increasing inequities within the category of women and men, we analyze the need to introduce an intersectional approach in studying migrants' health.