"This book can be read by anyone with an interest in migration and health, whether as an advocate for migrants health, as a student in a health profession, researcher or policy maker. It provides an ample orientation to the field in the European context. Among other important raised issues, it underlines an all too often neglected fact; health is a human right. By involving broad issues and problem areas from a variety of perspectives, the volume illustrates that migration and health is a field that can not be allocated to a single discipline." Carin Bjrngren Cuadra, Senior Lecturer, Malm University, Sweden Migrants make up a growing share of European populations. However, all too often their situation is compounded by problems with accessing health and other basic services. There is a need for tailored health policies, but robust data on the health needs of migrants and how best these needs can be met are scarce. Written by a collaboration of authors from three key international organisations (the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, the EUPHA Section on Migrant and Ethnic Minority Health, and the International Organization for Migration), as well as leading researchers from across Europe, the book thoroughly explores the different aspects of migration and health in the EU and how they can be addressed by health systems. Structured into five easy-to-follow sections, the volume includes: Contributions from experts from across Europe Key topics such as: access to human rights and health care; health issues faced by migrants; and the national and European policy response so far Conclusions drawn from the latest available evidence Comprehensive information on different aspects of health and migration and how they can best be addressed by health systems is still not easy to find. This book addresses this shortfall and will be of major value to researchers, students, policy-makers and practitioners concerned with migration and health in an increasingly diverse Europe.

Compilation of papers originally presented at the PICUM conference held on 26 May 2003 at the European Parliament, Brussels. Sheds light on international migration and the deterioration of working conditions for undocumented migrants. Lists protective and repressive measures in use in European countries, followed by an overview of labour conditions faced by undocumented workers in agriculture, construction, and domestic work. Explores the basic social rights and minimum standards, and the role of actors who contribute to promoting undocumented workers' rights, such as social inspectors, trade unions, and NGOs. Gives recommendations and a list of relevant websites. Includes two ILO contributions: Patrick A. Taran: Globalization, migration and exploitation - irregular migrants and fundamental rights at work (p. 9-23); and Roger Plant: Forced labour and migrant workers (p. 61-65).

With specific attention to irregular migrant workers - that is to say, those without legal permits to stay in the countries in which they work - this volume focuses on domestic work, presenting studies from ten European countries, including Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain. Offering a comparative analysis of irregular migrants engaged in all kinds of domestic work, the authors explore questions relating to employment conditions, health issues and the family lives of migrants. The book examines the living and working conditions of irregular migrant domestic workers, their relations with employers, their access to basic rights such as sick leave, sick pay, and holiday pay, as well as access to health services. Close consideration is also given to the challenges for family life presented by workers' status as irregular migrants, with regard to their lives both in their countries of origin and with their employers. Through analyses of the often blurred distinction between legality and illegality, the notion of a ’career’ in domestic work and the policy responses of European nations to the growth of irregular migrant domestic work, this volume offers various conceptual developments in the study of migration and domestic work. As such, it will appeal to sociologists, political scientists, geographers and anthropologists with interests in migration, gender, the family and domestic work.

The processes of globalization, increasing human mobility and European integration have led to immigration, and in particular illegal immigration, being among the top international policy, economic and security concerns. This book analyzes the causes of illegal immigration in Europe together with the history and political economy of the phenomenon. It offers an assessment of contemporary political responses and proposes an alternative approach aiming at a more sustainable solution.

A longtime immigration activist explores what it means to be an undocumented American—revealing the ever-shifting nature of status in the U.S.—in this “impassioned and well-reported case for change (New York Times) In this illuminating work, immigrant rights activist Aviva Chomsky shows how “illegality” and “undocumentedness” are concepts that were created to exclude and exploit. With a focus on US policy, she probes how people, especially Mexican and Central Americans, have been assigned this status—and to what ends. Blending history with human drama, Chomsky explores what it means to be undocumented in a legal, social, economic, and historical context. The result is a powerful testament of the complex, contradictory, and ever-shifting nature of status in America.

This book explores how immigration laws, while aimed at discouraging undocumented migration, actually sustain it. It documents the circumstances that have caused previously documented migrants to become undocumented and explores the impact of their changing status on their families and on their own employment opportunities. The authors argue that undocumented migrants are forced into the most precarious types of work, and changes in the way that employment is organised, with a shift into temporary, agency and sub-contracted work, makes undocumented migrants particularly attractive in some employment markets. This groundbreaking volume draws substantially on data collected from a two-year research study in seven European countries that was focused on understanding the impact of migration flows on EU labour markets.