Migration

About Us

2025-2026 Migration Committee Mission Statement: The PHR Student Advisory Board Migration Committee empowers and educates medical students to advocate for migrants and to advance equitable, evidence-based healthcare. Through education, research, and advocacy, we seek to illuminate and address the unique healthcare barriers faced by migrant communities, fostering informed clinician-advocates committed to migration justice.

2025-2026 Goals:

1. Explore the intersections of migration, policy, and health

   1. Investigate and document how migration experiences—and evolving political climates—shape health outcomes for diverse migrant populations, with attention to differential impacts.

2. Assess institutional and policy effects on student engagement

   1. Examine how changes in migration policy influence undergraduate medical students’ participation in migrant-centered clinical and advocacy initiatives.

Action Plan:

• Feasibility study 

  • Evaluate the feasibility of including a standardized questionnaire (e.g., Post-Migration Living Difficulties Scale or Refugee Post-Migration Stress Scale) in PHR asylum clinic evaluations to assess post-migration stressors such as housing, legal vulnerability, discrimination, and isolation.

• Pilot implementation 

  • Launch a trial of the preferred scale at one PHR asylum clinic. Gather structured feedback from clinician interviewers, student assistants, and applicants to evaluate usability and acceptability.

• Scale and database expansion 

  • Refine the protocol and roll it out across multiple clinic sites to create a multi-site database of post-migration stressors.

• Scholarship and dissemination 

  • Prepare and publish a manuscript detailing methodology, findings, and implications for asylum evaluation practices and migrant health advocacy.

Committee Members

Interested in contacting the migration committee? Email sab@phrstudents.org for contact information.