Toward a Life-Course Perspective of Migrant Worker Health and Well-Being

The health of migrants is important for both sending and receiving societies, but the sole focus on the post-migration period in the current literature limits our understanding of the health impacts of migration. This chapter proposes that migrant health research include the pre-migration phase so that migration can be explored from a life-course perspective that explicitly recognizes the continuity of life (e.g., skills and resources migrants carry along) as well as changes in life (e.g., physical locations, social environments, and social standing). This chapter will first discuss the advantages of including the pre-migration phase in migrant health research as it reviews a small number of previous studies using a life-course perspective. The specific emphasis is on pre-migration psychosocial processes and their implications for post-migration well-being, especially related to work because job prospects are a major driver for migration. Then some findings from a pre- and post-migration study the authors conducted will be shown and new research questions on migration and health will be suggested. Finally, future directions—needs, challenges, and possibilities—for expanding the scope of research on migrant health and well-being will be presented.