Work Package 4: Migrants’ Experiences in Accessing Basic Services and Tools for Improving Healthcare Provision

Work Package 4 investigates barriers to migrants’ access to services across the five areas covered in this project (healthcare, housing, employment, education and social assistance), their level of awareness regarding their social rights and their experiences accessing basic services. It also designs and pilots training modules to improve migrants’ access to healthcare.

Existing statistics on migrants’ integration across EU27 still point towards significant challenges in their access to basic services. However, it requires further exploration to what extent migrants deliberately opt for non-take up of public services, and to what extent they are directly or indirectly deterred from using public services. Likewise, the effects of co-ethnic concordance remain unclear, such as whether service provision is improved when provided by individuals with similar ethnic or linguistic backgrounds. Finally, further research is needed to examine how digital inequalities, online misinformation, and the digitization of social services complicate or facilitate access and usage - a question whose urgency is fuelled by greater online service provision in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This WP therefore identifies best practice examples as well as gaps in the access and provision of such services from the point of view of migrants and stakeholders, with a particular focus on healthcare. The evidence gathered from interviews with migrants and service in the four study countries will guide the preparation of two training modules for medical and related support staff and medical students who already or in the future interact with migrant patients through in-person and telehealth consultations.