HEALTH CARE SCHEMES AND BARRIERS AMONG UNDOCUMENTED MIGRANTS IN EUROPEAN AND ASEAN COUNTRIES: SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

Aye  Myat Myat Win; Sang-arun  Isaramalai; Phen  Sukmag

Authors

Aye Myat Myat Win Health System Management Institute, Prince of Songkla University, Songkhla 90110, Thailand.
Sang-arun Isaramalai Faculty of Nursing, Prince of Songkla University, Songkhla 90110, Thailand.
Phen Sukmag Health System Management Institute, Prince of Songkla University, Songkhla 90110, Thailand.

Keywords:

Health care schemes, health care services, barriers, undocumented migrants, Europe, ASEAN

Abstract

Health care schemes are provided to ensure good health and quality of life for the population of a country, which includes undocumented migrants, a vulnerable population subgroup. This group of people often have barriers to access these schemes and achieve desirable health outcomes. The objective of this study is to describe various health care schemes and their barriers to accessing undocumented migrants. The results of this study can provide recommendations for reducing these barriers. A systematic review of studies related to health care schemes and their barriers of access for undocumented migrants in European and ASEAN countries was performed. Studies were searched from Web of Science, ScienceDirect, PubMed, and Scopus between 2007 and 2018. A total of 9,634 studies were screened and assessed for eligibility, of which 15 were retrieved and included in the study. Major barriers to health care schemes for undocumented migrants included fear of deportation, constraints in the availability of services, lack knowledge about available health care services and ways to seek care, language difficulty, and financial issues. Although varying degrees of health care schemes and services are offered for undocumented migrants, coverage is not effective due to the presence of these barriers. Therefore, enhancement of policies to improve health care access of undocumented migrants and support the provision of care with culturally appropriate navigators such as migrant volunteers are required.

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