Migration on the Health of School-Age Children and Adolescents: The Pivotal Role of Health Education

There is no doubt migration impacts the health of individuals physically, mentally, and socially. Conditions surrounding the migration process can increase the vulnerability to ill health especially when the migration is involuntary, fleeing natural or man-made disasters. Children and adolescents are vulnerable group and conditions affecting health status increase migration risk of children This is paper is aimed at highlighting the impact of migration on the health of this vulnerable group as well as positioning health education as a tool to ameliorate the outcome of the health effect of migration on this group (children and adolescents). A comprehensive review of the literature was conducted on the associations between migration and health of school-age children and adolescents. Publications in standard outlets were examined using the following keywords: migration, vulnerable group in health, children migrants, adolescent migrants, health education for migrants, health impact on migrants in International Organization for Migration (IOM), PubMed, iSi, related base journals, some standard textbooks, as well as the researcher’s observations on migrants between 2010 and 2020. These articles were critiqued to arrive at the analysis and recommendations of this review. The findings revealed that Child and adolescent migration appear to be on the increase despite the health impact of migration on this vulnerable group. Also, migrant children, are more prone to physical, mental, and social health conditions than non-migrant children. They also experience respiratory infections, skin infections. and gastrointestinal illnesses because of poor living conditions, suboptimal hygiene, and deprivation during migration, and they lack access to proper health care. Creative health education was highlighted as a means of giving information, collaboration and advocacy that can help to bridge gaps in knowledge on health conditions experienced by this group of migrants and their families.
It is recommended that all countries should have active policies to bridge the gap of inequalities between migrants and non-migrants in different countries.