Human Mobility and Population Health: New Approaches in a Globalizing World

The globalization of economies in the last 25 years has greatly increased both the number of people on the move and the rapidity of their movement, and has brought attention to global disparities in health determinants and to the health of migrant populations themselves. Differences in epidemiological disease risk (prevalence gaps) may have negative, neutral, or positive health consequences for the migrant or receiving population. Population mobility represents a growing challenge to the development of public health programs and legislative policies to prevent the importation of disease, and to promote and protect the health of migrants and the local, receiving population. The inability to detect and contain imported disease threats at national borders requires a shift in immigration, quarantine, and public health approaches to health and mobile populations. A new paradigm is needed to facilitate the development of policies and programs to address the health consequences of population mobility.