SS41 OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH FOR MIGRANT WORKERS: RESEARCH GAPS, INTERVENTIONS AND THE FUTURE AHEAD

It is estimated that the number of people living outside of their country of origin reached 281 million in 2020, approximately the size of the entire population of Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous country. Most of these migrants come from low- and middle-income countries to high-income countries where approximately 65% of them live. Unfortunately, migrant workers are globally known to predominantly work in “4-D jobs”— dirty, dangerous, and difficult and discriminatory; the fourth ‘D’ was recently added to acknowledge the discriminatory aspect and other social determinants of health migrant workers face in their host country. These workers are at considerable risk of work-related illnesses and injury but their health needs are critically overlooked in research and policy. International migration has been used by some destination countries as a tool to address the labor market shortage. The absence of a global coordinated approach for migrant workers highlights a key deficiency in public, population, and global health, resulting in a lack of basic occupational health and dignifying workplaces. Objectives of this Special Session: (i) Identify new research gaps and intervention possibilities to prevent work-related illness and diseases of migrant workers, (ii) foster the scientific progress, knowledge and development of occupational health programs during the four phases of migration, (iii) foment collaboration between participants to drive policy and improve the quality of existing programs around the world through a synergistic network of experts.