About Lancet Migration

Latest Research & Publications

Humans have been on the move for millennia and migration is our global reality and future. The impact of the migration process on health is a central public health issue for all societies. Lancet Migration: global collaboration to advance migration health is a collaboration between The Lancet and researchers, implementers, and others in the field of migration and health that aims to address evidence gaps and drive policy change, building on the recommendations of the UCL-Lancet Commission on Migration and Health published in December 2018.

Our vision

Our vision is a future where evidence-based measures underpin migration and health policy and action; where all migrants have access to high quality health services regardless of legal status; and where implementation is secured through purposely designed public engagement, advocacy, and accountability.

Lancet Migration was launched in February 2020 and is an independent body, funded via research funding bodies and research institutions. Over the first months we held a series of local, regional, and global consultative processes, which enabled academics, policy makers and practitioners to input into our strategic research plan for the next one to two years.

The Lancet Migration global collaboration aims to make a positive impact on the lives of people who migrate, and the environments in which they live, through multidisciplinary research, as well as leadership, engagement, dissemination of research, and advocacy.

Administrative support is based at UCL. The vision of the Lancet Migration global collaboration is to transform evidence into action at local, regional, and global levels and to contribute to improving health and preventing morbidity and mortality for all migrants, nationals, and those who are left behind.

Lancet Migration works in a complementary manner with multilateral agencies, non-governmental organisations, faith groups, donors, and governments to provide a platform for documenting progress at global, regional and national level, towards better health for all migrants, host populations and those left behind, based on sound indicators and robust data.

We’re building on our existing networks and collaborators to consolidate regional hubs, comprised of academic, policy and operational partners at national, regional and global level, and work closely with existing policy work on migration and health, to transform evidence into action.

Our objectives

Lancet Migration’s work has two primary objectives:

High quality research

Undertake and support high quality, multidisciplinary scientific research to address the evidence gaps in the field of migration and health

We undertake and support the generation of new evidence, focused on the research priorities identified in the UCL-Lancet Migration and Health Commission report and via expert consensus. Every couple of years, we focus on different global research priorities in the field of migration and health. Working groups comprising individuals and institutions from diverse parts of the world are working on these research priorities to produce peer-reviewed publications.

The research priorities for Lancet Migration in the first 1—2 years are:

  1. Universal health coverage and migration
  2. Climate change, migration, and health

Cross-cutting themes include:

  • Migration and health data and epidemiological trends
  • Migration, gender and health
  • Labour migration and occupational health
  • Forced migration and global migration health governance

Engagement, advocacy, and policy

Stimulate public engagement, advocacy, and policy shaping activities to transform evidence into action.

We utilise the evidence generated to impact sustainable change on many of the broader determinants of migration and  health. Our engagement, advocacy and policy work consists of three main components:

  • Engagement: We are prioritising engagement with both the public and policy makers: via discussions with disparate groups about migration and health, and innovative science-arts approaches to reach the broadest possible audience.
  • Advocacy: We are working with civil society and multilateral organisations to address misinformation, divisive myths and discriminatory rhetoric about migration and health. We advocate for the rights of migrants to ensure access to healthcare, safe and healthy educational and working conditions.
  • Policy: We translate health and population-based data from different sources into practical public health applications at regional and national levels through policy briefings and research-policy roundtables. We also operationalise these through policy-oriented analyses and recommendations to aid evidence-based migration health policy, planning, decision-making and action