Health and Migration: the Challenge of Globalization

15 December 2009
Senate of the Italian Republic
Rome, Piazza della Minerva, 38

NIHMP and the Osservatorio Sanità e Salute (Health and Healthiness Observatory), organized the meeting “Health and Migration: the Challenge of Globalization”, which was held at the Senate of the Italian Republic.
Some Italian authorities participated in the event, among others: Sen. Cesare Cursi, Prof. Ferruccio Fazio, Sen. Ignazio Marino, Sen. Antonio Tomassini, Dr. Filippo Palumbo, Dr. Francesco Rocca and Mons. Agostino Marchetto.
During the event, the last book written by Aldo Morrone, “Lampedusa gateway to Europe: a dream to survive”, was also presented.

Introduction to the meeting:
Migration is the consequence of extremely complex economic and geopolitical processes. Every year, about 2 million and 300 thousand people emigrate towards the richest countries of the world, particularly North America, which receives 1 million and 300 thousand migrants per year (UN/DESA, 2007). The International Organization for Migrations estimates that about 200 million people, 3% of the world population, lives abroad (IOM, 2008): this value does not take into account the number of undocumented migrants, who constitute a great part of today’s migrations.
All travellers, due to different health, hygienic, climatic, food and housing conditions, are more exposed to health problems, particularly infectious and dermatological diseases, jet lag syndrome, high altitude pathologies, etc.
Today in Italy there are about 4,330,000 documented migrants, 6.5% of the total population, 13% more than in 2007 (Dossier Caritas, 2009).
The change caused by migration can lead to stress, uprooting from one’s environment and certainties, hardship, social exclusion, inadequate feeding, lack of workplace safety, bad housing conditions, imprisonment, prostitution, infectious diseases, disorders of the respiratory and digestive systems, skin pathologies and sexually transmitted diseases. The phenomena of the so-called re-emerging diseases, such as tuberculosis, cholera and leprosy and of emerging pathologies, like HIV/AIDS and flu syndromes are also remarkable. Different studies confirm that morbidity and mortality, both in Italy and in other countries, increase with social disadvantage.
The protection of migrants’ health has therefore a strategic value: it is for the benefit of both marginalized people and the hosting society.