Abstract:
Objectives This paper summarizes the information on immigrant occupational health available from recent
studies, incorporating varied study designs.
Methods A systematic search was carried out in PubMed employing terms of interest to the study and related
terms supplied by the same search engine. Articles were selected through the following process: (i) reading
the title and abstract, in English or Spanish, for the period 1990–2005, (ii) reading of the entire text of selected
articles; (iii) making a manual search of the relevant citations in the selected articles; (iv) eliminating articles
without a focus on the themes of central interest (immigration, work, and health), and (v) reading and analyzing
the definitive article set. No quality criteria were used in the article selection.
Results The location of studies was not straightforward and required careful thought about the search terms.
The included 48 papers were often multifaceted and difficult to categorize. They generally came from countries
historically associated with immigration and described occupational risk factors, health consequences, and the
social, economic, and cultural influences on worker health. They were also based on data, surveillance, training,
and preventive measures that were inadequate.
Conclusions Increased migration is a reality in industrialized countries all over the world, and it has social,
political, and economic consequences for migrating groups, as well as for their sending and host societies. More
reliable data, targeted appropriate interventions, and enforcement of existing regulations are necessary to improve
the health of immigrant workers. Furthermore, studies in sending and developing countries should be encouraged
to form a more complete understanding of this complex situation.
