Migrant Health Vulnerability Through the Migration Process: Implications for Health Policy in Mexico and the United States

Social vulnerability refers to the relative lack of protection of a group of people when they face potential damage to their health, threats to the satisfaction of their basic needs, and violation of their human rights due to their lesser financial, personal, social and legal resources. Individuals and societies cope with these adverse conditions by mitigating or adapting to hazards in different ways. For instance, people migrate (oftentimes temporarily) seeking better circumstances that allow them to alleviate the worst effects of social vulnerability in the short term or remedy them in the medium-to-long run by allowing them to live in more secure, stable, and salubrious environments.