2024-2028 | OZR VUB
Migration is associated with health and healthcare use, but the impact varies depending on many individual and contextual factors. Most quantitative research compares health and healthcare use between migrants and non-migrants, but as the migrant population grows and becomes more diverse, it is also important to look at health differences within migrant groups. This is also because migration intersects with other social factors, such as gender, sexual orientation and socioeconomic status, which in turn influence health.
Quantitative research on health differences within migrant populations and on the interaction of migration-related factors (such as country of origin, legal status and motivation) with gender and socioeconomic status is limited, mainly due to a lack of appropriate data.
Therefore, this research project will:
1) Map and evaluate existing data to see if they are suitable for studying health and healthcare use among migrants.
2) Explore new ways to reach migrant populations in Belgium for health research, learning from successful methods used in other countries.
3) Collect new data to study health and healthcare use among migrant populations in Belgium, using an intersectional approach. This approach examines how different social factors combine to shape health outcomes and inequalities.
In this way, we aim to get a better understanding of migrants’ health status and healthcare use in Belgium and to reveal diverse needs.
