Health and Wellbeing in immigrants in Chile: the contribution of FONDECYT research to international evidence

Abstract

Introduction: international migration has become a social phenomenon with high impact in both the sending and the receiving societies. It has an impact on many dimensions of life, including health and wellbeing. Objective: To synthesize the main findings of FONDECYT projects related to the field of health and migration in the period 2002 - 2015. Material and method: A search of the CONICYT repository was carried out using four keywords: immigrants - migrants -migration - immigration - immigrant. Results: Of the 57 projects approved by Fondecyt to conduct research on any field related to international migration, only 2 were explicitly related to health. The main results of both projects are summarized. The first one was dedicated to the generation of epidemiological evidence on social determinants of among international migrants in Chile and to compare it to the local population. The second one inquired about the well-being, health and quality of life in Colombian and Peruvian mi- grant populations in three cities of Chile. Conclusion: There is an urgent need to produce robust evidence on the health status and related social processes involved in migration cycles. However, research is still incipient, which merits the investment of different sectors of the country, public and private, that promote top-level re- search in this area of studies.