EDITORIAL article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Life-Course Epidemiology and Social Inequalities in Health
This article is part of the Research TopicMigration and Health: A Human Rights Perspective - Conference Insights and BeyondView all 12 articles
Editorial: Migration and Health: A Human Rights Perspective
Provisionally accepted
- 1New York City College of Technology, New York, United States
- 2The City University of New York, New York, United States
- 3Lehman College, New York, United States
- 4CUNY School of Professional Studies, New York, United States
- 5New York University Rory Meyers College of Nursing, New York, United States
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Human mobility is a world-wide phenomenon among global majority and global minority countries (World Migration Report, 2024). The number of international migrants has been growing; it was about 300 million in 2024 (Paez-Deggeller, 2025). People move for a variety of reasons, such as seeking better jobs and access to better health care; running from famine, war, or natural disasters; and fleeing persecution (Recchi, 2015). Regardless of the rationale, people who move are likely to experience health disparities-characterized by limited access to care; cultural, language, and social barriers; and adverse physical and mental health outcomes (Ekezie et al., 2025).To raise awareness and ignite collaborations to strategically mitigate health disparities prompted by transitions from home countries to new environments, the City University of New York Institute for Health Equity (CIHE) led a 2023 Academic Summit on "Migration and Health: A Human Rights Perspective." Invigorated by the summit's timely and important dialogues, we sought to widen the discussion and scholarly contributions-ensuing this special issue.With a stimulating compilation of 11 articles, the issue includes quantitative and qualitative studies, reviews of current knowledge with future outlooks, and commentaries embedded in existential research to challenge the status quo and act towards health equity among populations experiencing mobility. Combined, the scholarship conveys the cycle of migration through the lifespan (from maternal and infant care to elder care) and addresses a variety of morbidities (physical and mental) as well as potential actions and solutions (patient-centered approaches to care, robust education and social support programs).Examining health disparity across the lifespan, six articles provide insight from maternal care (impacting fetal care) to elder care. Focused on maternal care, Smith et al.'s interviews with South Asian refugees living in the US highlight the flaws of the US healthcare system as they are amplified for refugees, whose unfamiliarity with the health system of the new country limits care. Recommendations include investments in nursing care, multilingual doula care, language services, and robust childbirth education. This is most relevant given high maternal and mortality rates 38 in the (The Century 2025
Keywords: Migration, migrant, Health, disparity, Human Rights, mobility
Received: 27 Oct 2025; Accepted: 31 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Rodriguez, Goral, Squires and Roldos. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Maria-Isabel Roldos, mariaisabel.roldos@lehman.cuny.edu
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