International migration and its influence on health

Abstract

What would it take for you to leave your home and everything you know? What if you left knowing you might not be able to return? If you had to leave quickly, what would you take with you? These are questions that many immigrants must grapple with because of their circumstances. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the global migration of humans had reached the highest levels in recorded human history.International Organization for Migration (IOM) is the global institution that studies and helps inform international laws regarding human migration. This organization posits that 1 in every 30 persons globally is classified broadly as a migrant (IOM, 2022). As the world transitions into the COVID-19 postpandemic phase, it is estimated that the number of global migrants will return to prepandemic levels within a decade, if not sooner (IOM, 2021).The IOM has promulgated a set of internationally standardized definitions for people who have migrated in Table 1. Although the broadest term is migrant, other terms may be useful to clinicians and researchers, and appreciated by clients and participants, because they classify migrants into various terms that convey the basis for the migration or the migrant's status. Examples are migrant worker, asylum seeker, refugee, undocumented migrant, and immigrant.Notably, IOM stresses that no human being should be classified as illegal in reference to their residential status in a country. The term illegal is reductive, dehumanizing, xenophobic, and oftentimes rooted in racist ideas.Immigrants face many challenges when adapting to life in the host country, including when navigating the healthcare system.Common challenges immigrants experience when navigating the healthcare system are language barriers, changes in socioeconomic status, changes in social support networks, barriers with accultura-

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