From The IFMSA President As medical students and physicians, we witness inequalities in health care every day. IFMSA has a firm stand against discrimination whether based on ethnicity, race, sex, disability or origin. I am thrilled to have the awesome responsibility of leading our student-run independent non political federation. Since its establishment, IFMSA has made strides in becoming the medical students leading voice in health care and medical education reform. We have consistently fought for equal access to health care. We have lead coalitions to fight HIV/AIDS, promoted Health as a human right and transformed the culture of medical education. IFMSA has always given priority attention to vulnerable and marginalized population groups. This is why IFMSA chose the theme Migration and Health as a core of its coming General Assembly and this edition of MSI. The last century saw a number of fundamental changes in the ways in which societies and countries interrelate, in the demands and pressures that resulted in people to move between countries, and in the patterns of health associated with those new interactions. People are increasingly migrating for political, humanitarian, economic or environmental reasons whether it was due to forced or voluntary movement. In the last century, in response to the gradual hardening of policies to migration, unofficial but voluntary and economically inspired voluntary migration predominated. The number of people forced to move for reasons of conflict and political repression also grew over the course of the last century and has continued to take diverse forms. People continued flee across borders and become refugees with UN protection, while at much the same time millions of others were forced to flee from their homes but remain within their own borders, often without any international or national protection. The health and health care implications of these forced migrations are always severe and far-reaching.
The movement of people across borders has always generated concern on the part of receiving countries and a variety of procedures have evolved over the years to respond to migration. These policies have leaned towards the restrictive rather than the permissive, and even more so in the case of policies that are now emerging in both developed and developing countries making migration more complicated, difficult and unattractive. In doing so, they may be generating social and economic environments that are detrimental to the health and welfare of migrants Effect of migration on health ranges from forced and undocumented migrants lacking access to basic health services to poor populations left behind by the brain drain as health professionals in poor countries migrate to richer ones. Migrants often face serious obstacles to good health due to discrimination, language and cultural barriers, legal status, and other economic and social challenges. It is also important to acknowledge that migration either due to forced or voluntary movement itself is a natural reflection of inequality, where people seek better conditions escaping climatic, social, political, agricultural and economic threats and seek alternative life options elsewhere. The world became a smaller place to live in and health conditions in one country or region assumed a bigger capacity than ever before influencing those in other parts of the world. At the same time, migration policies may have significant global and public health consequences. This publication provides an overview of some of the concerns of future physicians in addressing the linkages between migration, health and human rights. We hope that you will enjoy reading the articles, the debates and the concerns that medical students raise regarding this issue. Anas Eid President 20072007 -2008 IFMSA Internacional Federation of Medical Students´ Association
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