Gender-based health inequalities among migrant women during COVID-19 and public health responses in the Nordic countries

About the project

In Europe, the right to health is upheld in the European Social Charter, obliging states to take measures to promote health and to provide health care. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed differences in health care systems and crisis-management approaches across Nordic and Baltic countries. A consistent finding across these countries is that migrants, as well as women, have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic; both groups are more likely to be diagnosed with COVID-19, and to be more impacted from the long-term consequences of government and public health responses. Lower vaccination intentions and uptakes have also been recorded both among migrant groups and among women. Based on an analysis of migrant women experiences in three countries, the project aims to understand the impact of government and public health responses on migrant women during COVID-19, in particular by addressing the mechanisms which may have prevented their access to health information and/or vaccination.
The general objective of the project is to address gender-based health inequalities in the Nordic/Baltic region by:

  • Identifying and analysing the impact of government and public health response on the experiences of migrant women in the context of COVID-19.
  • Examining the relationship between media consumption and vaccine acceptance among migrant women in three Nordic/Baltic countries.

Members

Markus Meckl, Professor, University of Akureyri

Collaborators

University of Gothenburg, Sweden

Riga Stradiņš University, Latvia