Immigration and healthcare in the context of a pandemic: vulnerabilities and (few) responses in Europe and Spain

Abstract

The importance of protecting the health of immigrants has been widely recognised as a necessary condition for responding effectively to the COVID-19 pandemic. The need to ensure that all migrants have access to healthcare, regardless of their administrative situation, has been underlined. In this context, this paper briefly reviews the main measures adopted in immigration and healthcare in different European countries and focuses specifically on the Spanish case. It highlights how little has been done to reduce the vulnerabilities of immigrant groups to COVID-19. Progress in this area would have required initiatives to eliminate the linguistic, organisational and administrative barriers that prevent these groups from having full access to virus prevention, diagnosis and containment measures.

Keywords

• health and vulnerability
• healthcare
• covid-19
• immigration
• europe
• spain