SELMA Project
Addressing structural determinants of labour migrants’ health: Identifying acceptable and feasible policy options
Over 272 million people currently live in a country other than that of their birth. Some move in search of better opportunities, for others extreme poverty, insecurity, natural disasters, or war have driven them from their homes. Our world is shaped by mobility, our societies contoured by it, and yet migration as a determinant of health remains troublingly understudied.
About
SELMA is a cross-institutional, cross-cultural, interdisciplinary collaborative migration health project conducted as a partnership between University College London, UK, Aga Khan University, Pakistan, the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine and University of Bern, Switzerland.
SELMA conducted an in-depth policy analysis followed by stakeholder interviews to review and assess the content of policies relevant to the health of labour migrants in Pakistan and Qatar in relation to global level guidance and considerations of the policies' potential for impact and equity orientation; and, secondly, to explore national stakeholder perspectives, in both Pakistan and Qatar, on what explains discrepancies in policy content against global level guidance and to consider the opportunities for, and prospects of, enhancing their respective responsibilities to protect the health of labour migrants.
Part of the SELMA project explores the experiences of labour migrants travelling from Pakistan to work in Qatar, including the impact that migration has had on health and wellbeing through artistic expression.
Project Duration: August 2019 - December 2021
Image Credit: Amina Zoomkawala