QUIZ 1 - QUESTION 7
Migrants tend to underuse maternal health services and have an increased risk of poor sexual and reproductive health outcomes (Alarcão et al 2021). While specific determinants and experiences vary according to the context, migrants face a number of barriers to accessing health care, including sexual and reproductive health services. Barriers to access include restrictive migration and social policies, migrants’ labour conditions and low income, sociocultural and linguistic background and experiences with health care systems in countries of origin (or lack thereof), and racial and ethnic discrimination (Petrozziello 2013:185).
Migrant women require access to the full spectrum of sexual and reproductive health services, including accurate and accessible information, safe, affordable and acceptable contraception methods of their choice and high-quality pre- and post-natal care. Survivors of violence need access to specialized health care, including comprehensive clinical management of rape in order to manage injuries, administer medication to prevent sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, and to prevent unwanted pregnancies. Measures can be taken to facilitate migrant women’s access to social protection system as well as to introduce firewalls to block information sharing between immigration enforcement agencies and service providers.
Additional resources:
CEDAW Committee (2008) General recommendation No. 26 on women migrant workers
Expert Working Group on Women’s Human Rights in Migration (2018) Steps for Ensuring Gender-Responsive Access to Services and to Justice in the Global Compact for Migration, GCM Gender Series, Issue 2
UNFPA, OHCHR and the Danish Institute for Human Rights (2014) Reproductive Rights are Human Rights: A Handbook for National Human Rights Institutions
UNHCR Sexual and reproductive health resources
UN Women free online course, I Know Gender Module 9: Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights
WHO (2017) Women on the move: Migration, care work and health
Click on the thematic area Social Protection, Rights and Services to learn more.