ABSTRACT
This chapter applies an urban health equity lens to explore migration and inequality in a South African urban setting. This will be achieved through exploring how the structural, social and physical conditions experienced by different urban migrant groups shape health inequities — differences in health that are unnecessary, avoidable, unfair and unjust (Whitehead 1992). To date, issues relating to migration and health have been under-represented in research exploring health equity (Malmusi et al. 2010). Approached from a social determinist perspective, it is argued that the health experiences of different migrant groups (those moving within the country, and those crossing borders) residing in the city of Johannesburg result from the unjust distribution of — and access to — the underlying social determinants of urban health, including differences in access to healthcare. This approach considers the health of urban migrants as more than the risk factors of individuals, or their health-care needs alone; it is the social and physical environment of cities, combined with health and social service systems, that form the primary determinants of the health of urban migrants (Vlahov and Galea 2002; Vlahov et al. 2005).
