Association of cultural origin and migration status with work-related mental health of migrants and refugees in Europe : a systematic review protocol

Abstract

Introduction:

Migrants make up a significant proportion of the European working population. Previous studies have already shown that migrants and refugees often suffer from poor work-related conditions in the host country, which might have an impact on mental health. Thus, the main objective of this systematic review is to analyse and summarise existing research on work-related conditions of migrants and refugees in Europe and to investigate the relationship of these conditions with their mental health.

Methods and analysis: Three electronic databases (PubMed/MEDLINE, PsycINFO and CINAHL) will be systematically searched for eligible articles using quantitative study designs (randomised controlled trials, cohort, case–control and cross-sectional studies with and without control groups) written in English, German, French, Italian, Polish, Spanish or Turkish and published from 1st January 2016 onwards. The primary health outcomes will be diagnosed psychiatric and psychological disorders, suicide and suicide attempts, psychiatric and psychological symptoms, and perceived distress. The secondary health outcomes will be more general concepts of mental health such as well-being, life satisfaction and quality of life. Outcome measures must have been assessed by validated questionnaires. Screening of all articles, reference lists of included studies and relevant reviews as well as data extraction will be performed independently by two review authors. Methodological quality of primary studies will be assessed and discussed. The results of the primary studies will be summarised descriptively. Migrants and natives, migrants and refugees, migrants of different cultural backgrounds and migrants living in different host countries will be compared in terms of the association between their work-related conditions and their mental health.

Ethics and dissemination: This systematic review is excluded from ethical approval because it will use previously approved published data from primary studies. The results of this review will be submitted to a related peer-reviewed journal.