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Challenges in the provision of healthcare services for migrants: a systematic review through providers’ lens

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Suphanchaimat, Rapeepong, Kantamaturapoj, Kanang, Putthasri, Weerasak, Prakongsai, Phusit·2015·BMC Health Services Research
DOI 10.1186/s12913-015-1065-zPMC PMC4574510
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Abstract

BACKGROUND: In recent years, cross-border migration has gained significant attention in high-level policy dialogues in numerous countries. While there exists some literature describing the health status of migrants, and exploring migrants' perceptions of service utilisation in receiving countries, there is still little evidence that examines the issue of health services for migrants through the lens of providers. This study therefore aims to systematically review the latest literature, which investigated perceptions and attitudes of healthcare providers in managing care for migrants, as well as examining the challenges and barriers faced in their practices. METHODS: A systematic review was performed by gathering evidence from three main online databases: Medline, Embase and Scopus, plus a purposive search from the World Health Organization's website and grey literature sources. The articles, published in English since 2000, were reviewed according to the following topics: (1) how healthcare providers interacted with individual migrant patients, (2) how workplace factors shaped services for migrants, and (3) how the external environment, specifically laws and professional norms influenced their practices. Key message of the articles were analysed by thematic analysis. RESULTS: Thirty seven articles were recruited for the final review. Key findings of the selected articles were synthesised and presented in the data extraction form. Quality of retrieved articles varied substantially. Almost all the selected articles had congruent findings regarding language andcultural challenges, and a lack of knowledge of a host country's health system amongst migrant patients. Most respondents expressed concerns over in-house constraints resulting from heavy workloads and the inadequacy of human resources. Professional norms strongly influenced the behaviours and attitudes of healthcare providers despite conflicting with laws that limited right to health services access for illegal migrants. DISCUSSION: The perceptions, attitudes and practices of practitioners in the provision of healthcare services for migrants were mainly influenced by: (1) diverse cultural beliefs and language differences, (2) limited institutional capacity, in terms of time and/or resource constraints, (3) the contradiction between professional ethics and laws that limited migrants' right to health care. Nevertheless, healthcare providers addressedsuch problems by partially ignoring the immigrants'precarious legal status, and using numerous tactics, including seeking help from civil society groups, to support their clinical practice. CONCLUSION: It was evident that healthcare providers faced several challenges in managing care for migrants, which included not only language and cultural barriers, but also resource constraints within their workplaces, and disharmony between the law and their professional norms. Further studies, which explore health care management for migrants in countries with different health insurance models, are recommended.

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  • Our results echo a review of providers' challenges in caring for migrant patients that cited resource limitations and dissonance between laws and professional codes as some of the difficulties clinicians experience.

    “Our results echo a review of providers’ challenges in caring for migrant patients that cited resource limitations and dissonance between laws and professional codes as some of the difficulties clinicians experience [22].”

    From Including undocumented migrants in universal health coverage: a maternal health case study from the Thailand-Myanmar border (2021) · cites this paper as [22]

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Metadata

Authors
Suphanchaimat, R., Kantamaturapoj, K., Putthasri, W., & Prakongsai, P.
Affiliations
  • Ministry of Public Health (TH)
  • Mahidol University (TH)
Corresponding author
Suphanchaimat, Rapeepong
ORCID
Venue
BMC Health Services Research
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2015-06
Volume
15
Issue
1
Pages
390-390
ISSN
1472-6963 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1186/s12913-015-1065-z
PMC
PMC4574510
OpenAlex
W2131388736
Cited by
322
References
3
Citations by year
2026: 32 · 2025: 46 · 2024: 42 · 2023: 29 · 2022: 27 · 2021: 33 · 2020: 41 · 2019: 35 · 2018: 21 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 5
FWCI
5.01
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • BMC Health Services Research (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Migration, Identity, and Health
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Migration, Health and Trauma
  • Social Sciences › Law › Migration, Racism, and Human Rights
Keywords
migrants, healthcare workers, cross-border migration, language barriers, cultural barriers, provider attitudes, health workforce shortage, professional ethics, migration law, health care access, undocumented immigrants, civil society support, health system capacity
MeSH terms
Adult, Delivery of Health Care, Female, Health Personnel, Health Services, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Problem Solving, Surveys and Questionnaires, Transients and Migrants, Cultural Diversity, Qualitative Research, Young Adult

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