Health of International Migrant Workers During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Scoping Review
Open accessAbstract
Background: The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and control measures adopted have had a disproportionate impact on workers, with migrants being a group specifically affected but poorly studied. This scoping review aims to describe the evidence published on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the physical and mental health of migrant workers. Methods: Papers written in English covering physical and mental health among international migrant workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, retrieved from six electronic databases searched on July 31, 2021, were included. A total of 1,096 references were extracted, of which 26 studies were finally included. Results: Most of the migrant populations studied were born in Asia (16 of 26) and Latin America (8 of 26) and were essential workers (15 of 26). Few studies described the length of stay in the host country (9 of 26), the legal status of the migrant population (6 of 26), or established comparison groups (7 of 26). Ten studies described COVID-19 outbreaks with high infection rates. Fourteen studies evaluated mental health (anxiety, depression, worries, fears, stress, and post-traumatic stress disorder). Three of the 26 studies presented collateral positive effects of the COVID-19 pandemic because of improved hygiene. Conclusion: There is a limited number of original publications related to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the physical and mental health of migrant workers around the world. These publications mainly focus on migrants born in Asia and Latin America. The physical, long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has, so far, not been evaluated. The positive collateral effects of improving healthcare conditions for migrant workers should also be further investigated.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively affected the mental health of international migrant workers.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively affected the mental health of international migrant workers (IMWs).”
From Effectiveness of a scalable, remotely delivered stepped-care intervention to reduce symptoms of psychological distress among Polish migrant workers in the Netherlands: study protocol for the RESPOND randomised controlled trial (2023) · cites this paper as [12]
The Discussion (page unavailable) says pandemic-related conditions appear to have been detrimental to migrant workers’ mental health. The Results (page unavailable) report studies of anxiety, depression and other mental-health outcomes, but the source’s qualified wording does not establish the citing sentence’s unqualified claim. (LLM, conf=0.82)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredCommon mental health problems among international migrant workers have been exacerbated by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
“These common mental health problems have been exacerbated by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic [12].”
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Research works printed but not linked: 1
- [12]Fasani F Mazza J. Immigrant key workers: their contribution to Europe's COVID-19 Response. IZA Discussion Paper (2020) 13178. 10.2139/ssrn.3584941 · DOI
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- Authors
- Oliva-Arocas, A., Benavente, P., Ronda, E., & Diaz, E.
- Affiliations
- University of Alicante (ES)
- University of Bergen (NO)
- Corresponding author
- Oliva-Arocas, Adriana
- Venue
- Frontiers in Public Health
- Publisher
- Frontiers Media SA
- Published
- 2022-02-16
- Volume
- 10
- Pages
- 816597-816597
- ISSN
- 2296-2565 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC8888537
- OpenAlex
- W4212942263
- Cited by
- 36
- References
- 55
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 4
- FWCI
- 1.34
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Frontiers in Public Health (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- NORA - Norwegian Open Research Archives (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- NORA - Norwegian Open Research Archives (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- RUA, Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Alicante (Universidad de Alicante) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › COVID-19 and Mental Health
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Migration, Health and Trauma
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Migration, Identity, and Health
- Keywords
- international migrant workers, COVID-19 pandemic, physical health, mental health, anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, essential workers, legal status of migrants, COVID-19 infection rates
- MeSH terms
- COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Humans, Mental Health, Transients and Migrants, Pandemics
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