“Unmet Needs for Healthcare among Migrants and Refugees:The Role of Destination Context in the EU”

Eleonora Miaci , Università degli Studi di Milano Statale
Manuela Stranges, University of Calabria
Eralba Cela, University of Milan
Elisa Barbiano di Belgiojoso, University of Milano-Bicocca

This study investigates disparities in unmet healthcare needs (UHN) among migrants and refugees across European countries, with particular attention to the role of destination context. Using data from the EU-MIDIS II survey (2015–2016), we assess whether refugees are more likely than other migrants to report needing but not receiving medical care during the previous 12 months. The analytical sample includes adult migrants and refugees in 19 EU Member States (N= 4,800 weighted observations). Logistic regression models estimate the association between migration status and self-reported unmet healthcare need, controlling for sociodemographic, socioeconomic, and contextual characteristics. Preliminary results show no significant difference overall between refugees and other migrants. However, gender-stratified models reveal that male refugees are significantly less likely than male migrants to experience unmet need, while no difference emerges among women. Both refugees and other migrants living in Southern Europe report lower unmet need than those in Northern Europe, suggesting that Southern contexts are, on average, less exclusionary. Yet interaction models indicate that within Southern Europe, refugees face higher unmet need than other migrants in the same countries and than refugees in Northern Europe. Future analyses will extend the framework through multilevel models incorporating macro-level indicators of welfare and healthcare systems (GDP per capita, health expenditure, Universal Health Coverage index, self-reported unmet need, and MIPEX scores). This will test whether national contexts moderate individual inequalities, clarifying how institutional inclusion and social exclusion jointly shape healthcare access for migrants and refugees in Europe.

See extended abstract

 Presented in Session 46. Migrant Populations, Legal Trajectories and Civic Stratification