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The Health of Migrant Agricultural Workers in Europe: A Scoping Review

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Abstract

Agriculture is a niche market for migrant workers, and one of the sectors with the highest rates of accidents, deaths and work-related health problems. To review and synthesize existing literature on the health conditions of international migrant agricultural workers in Europe. A scoping review of scientific literature published until March 2021 was conducted in PubMed, Scopus, WoS and OpenGrey, following Arksey & O’Malley’s theoretical framework where 5894 references were retrieved and screened. Nineteen articles were selected, reviewed and synthetized. The country with the highest number of studies published (n = 9) was Spain. The design of the studies was mainly cross-sectional (n = 13). The main health problems identified were: lower back pain and other musculoskeletal problems, dermatitis, gastrointestinal and respiratory infections, anxiety, stress, depression and barriers to access healthcare services. Migrant agricultural workers are a neglected population with conditions of vulnerability and precariousness, physical and mental health problems and poor working conditions. Interventions to reduce or eliminate language, cultural and administrative barriers to ensure access to healthcare services are needed, as well as designing a common European framework to protect the rights of migrant agricultural workers and their families.

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Funding

The first author was supported by the National University of Colombia through the research project (Code 46560), financed by the call for the strengthening of CTel projects in medical and health sciences with young talent and regional impact of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation of Colombia. The last author was supported by Generalitat de Catalunya, Serra-Hunter University Programme. This study is part of the project “Migration and agricultural work in Spain: sociolabour precarity and health” (Reference PI20/01310), funded by the call “Health Research Projects”’, Health Research Fund of the Carlos III Health Institute and Ministry of Science and Competitiveness, European Union, through the ERDF funds “A way to do Europe”.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Group Health and Care of Collectives, Faculty of Nursing, Nacional University of Colombia, Bogotá, DC, Colombia

    Heidy Natalia Urrego-Parra

  2. Department of Nursing and Physiotherapy, University of Lleida, Lleida, Spain

    Luis Alejandro Rodriguez-Guerrero, Roland Pastells-Peiró, José Tomás Mateos-García, Montserrat Gea-Sanchez & Erica Briones-Vozmediano

  3. Health Care Research Group (GRECS) - Biomedical Research Institut (IRB) Lleida- Dr. Pifarre Foundation, Lleida, Spain

    Roland Pastells-Peiró, José Tomás Mateos-García, Montserrat Gea-Sanchez & Erica Briones-Vozmediano

  4. Society, Health, Education and Culture Research Group (GESEC) of the University of Lleida, Lleida, Spain

    Roland Pastells-Peiró, José Tomás Mateos-García, Montserrat Gea-Sanchez & Erica Briones-Vozmediano

  5. ESIMar (Higher School of Nursing of the Sea), PSMAR (Centre affiliated to the Universitat Pompeu Fabra), Barcelona, Spain

    Astrid Escrig-Piñol

  6. SDHEd (Research Group On Social Determinants and Health Education), IMIM (Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute), Barcelona, España

    Astrid Escrig-Piñol

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  1. Heidy Natalia Urrego-Parra
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  2. Luis Alejandro Rodriguez-Guerrero
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  3. Roland Pastells-Peiró
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  4. José Tomás Mateos-García
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  5. Montserrat Gea-Sanchez
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  6. Astrid Escrig-Piñol
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  7. Erica Briones-Vozmediano
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Contributions

Study design: EB, RP, JTM, MG. Data collection: HNU, LAR, RP. Data analysis: HNU, LAR, RP. Study supervision: EB, MG. Manuscript writing: HNU, LAR. Critical revisions for important intellectual content: EB, JTM, RP, MG, AE.

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Correspondence to Montserrat Gea-Sanchez.

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Urrego-Parra, H.N., Rodriguez-Guerrero, L.A., Pastells-Peiró, R. et al. The Health of Migrant Agricultural Workers in Europe: A Scoping Review. J Immigrant Minority Health 24, 1580–1589 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-022-01330-y

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