Abstract
The presence of migrants as a phenomenon of globalization forces the various world health systems to face up to the problem of inequality penalising this population. Although new to immigration, Italy has seen an increase in immigrant health inequalities. Access to health services is a critical issue here.
Highlights
Public decision-makers and regional health systems have devoted great attention to the issue of equity, the question of what areas of inequality remain and how they may and should be rectified remains an open one.The same picture is to be found in all western countries: modern the health system, access to services is far from equal [1] [2]
The studies show [33] [39] how Italy too is undergoing a process of racialization which is marked in relation to health inequality, and follows a pattern: - the general healthcare picture of the immigrant population is fairly good, in certain areas of health immigrants fare worse than the native-born, and below the national average [36]; - The time of the healthy migrant—enjoying robust enough health to face the stress of migration–has given place to the phenomenon of the exhausted migrant whose living and working conditions are taking their toll [40]
On interesting fact is the low rate of ordinary admission on the part of immigrants (101‰ vs 147‰ Italians), and even lower when it comes to clandestine immigrants
Summary
Public decision-makers and regional health systems have devoted great attention to the issue of equity, the question of what areas of inequality remain and how they may and should be rectified remains an open one. The pattern of health inequality applies at the macro level (countries, especially in the same geographical region), the meso level (different socio-economic groups in one and the same nation) [6]-[8], and the micro level (individuals from the same area). It was the Black Report, published in the United Kingdom in 1980 [9], that exploded the myth that universalistic health systems could reduce inequality between people’s health, whether individuals or groups. After a brief summary of the new health inequalities—i.e. those targeting immigrants—we shall focus on certain of these, drawing on the epidemiological data available in Italy
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