With Asia and Europe hosting nearly two third of the world’s total migrant population, migrants’ health is increasing its significance in the discussion on migration policies and country’s economy. Migrants’ access to healthcare has often been based on a human-rights point of view. However, there is a need to evaluate of the benefits of including migrants into the receiving country’s healthcare from an economic point of view as well. ASEF Public Health Network’s research project Migrants and Healthcare: Social and Economic Approaches, provides social and economic analyses of failing to provide migrants with full access to healthcare. This is done by examining case studies in Austria, Italy, Hong Kong SAR and Singapore.
Migrants and Healthcare illustrates both the direct and indirect cost of migrants where they do not or have limited access to healthcare, and compares it to the cost where they have access to healthcare. Acknowledging that globalised labour markets demand a healthy and productive workforce, the publication aims to enrich the discussion on health policies by providing evidences to support the argument that the exclusion from primary healthcare causes unnecessary loss of human capital due to delayed or denied treatment.