ABSTRACT
The past decade has seen a growing interest in the linkages between health and migration, yet, as critics have noted, much of this debate has been framed either in terms of ‘threats’ to public health or from a rights-based perspective that focuses on health hazards faced by individual migrants and the subsequent challenges faced by associated services (Zimmerman et al., 2011). At the same time, there has been a widespread recognition of the gendered dimensions of both health (Sen and Östlin, 2010) and migration (Pedraza, 1991). Yet very little work has been done that brings these bodies of literature together to look at how migrants' access to health care is in itself a gendered process and can further compound existing gender inequalities. This chapter draws on these debates to consider linkages between migration, health and inequalities. Indeed we know that inequality and gender are both important social determinants of health. Others have argued that migration is also an important social determinant of health (Davies et al., 2010). The process of migration, which is highly gendered (Kofman, 2007), can introduce new constraints for individuals that may limit their access to socio-economic resources, further compounding inequalities. At the same time, migration can mean that individuals face new risks. For example, recent changes in the global economy have meant that a growing number of individuals (particularly women) now migrate to fill the devalued, marginalized and flexible sectors of production and services in polarized global cities (Sassen, 2000). This type of work tends to be unregulated and workers are exposed to a range of occupational risks, which have important implications for their health and well-being.
