Migrant Health

North East England is the smallest and least diverse of the nine English regions. Since 1999 it has received more than ten thousand asylum seekers, several thousand migrant workers; and growing numbers of overseas students.

Migrant people are a very heterogeneous group and can be classified in many different ways. For example, by: nationality, country of origin (which might be country of birth country or last resident) ethnicity, language or religion. An important further classification is the legal status of the migrant. This includes: asylum seeker, refugee, refused asylum seeker, migrants from Europe (especially the new EU accession states), migrants from outside Europe (e.g. the highly skilled migrants programme), students and many others (for reasons of marriage, family, and shorter term visitors).

While each person needs to be treated as an individual, these classifications may help give some assessment of likely needs to help in planning.

Top ten nationalities of migrants to the North East – from different routes

NINO Allocations 2006/7

Poland 4,120 India 1,680 China 750 Pakistan 430 Philippines 320 Slovak Rep 300 France 290 Czech Rep 280 Bangladesh 280 Malaysia 280 All Others 4,540

Asylum seekers September 2006

Iran 399 Eritrea 283 Iraq 273 Zimbabwe 242 Angola 231 D.R. Congo 220 Turkey 213 Sri Lanka 146 Afghanistan 144 Pakistan 142 All Others 1,411

International Students in North East Universities 2005/6

China 2,894 Malaysia 754 Greece 711 India 711 France 434 Taiwan 411 Germany 409 Hong Kong 383 Ireland 324 Cyprus 315 All Others 4,370

North of England Refugee Services

North East Strategic Migration Partnership

UK Border Agency

Health for Asylum and Refugees Portal

Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture

The Refugee Council

Faculty of Public Health briefing

Types of Migrant

For a report covering migration within Britain see Changing UK

National Public Health Library