Primary Care Access for Low-wage Migrant Workers in the Gulf

In many Gulf countries, low-wage migrant (blue-collar) workers make up a substantial share of the population and workforce. Yet their access to primary care is often constrained. Our team is partnering with local researchers to co-lead a comprehensive scoping review of the barriers these workers face, to map promising intervention models across the region, and to draw lessons for more equitable primary care design.

The Problem

Low-wage migrant workers face a convergence of structural, cultural, and individual barriers that block access to care. Key obstacles include lack of legal status or required documentation, exclusion from public insurance schemes, high out-of-pocket costs, language barriers, discrimination, and precarious mobility or work schedules. Evidence from GCC countries shows many services are not tailored to migrants’ needs, and that the shift toward mandatory private insurance may further restrict effective access. Though some interventions (mobile clinics, telehealth, outreach) have been tried globally, their impact on outcomes, uptake, sustainability and equity remains weakly evaluated.

Approach

We are synthesising global and regional evidence on interventions targeting primary care access for low-wage migrants in the Gulf. The review is categorising intervention types (e.g. mobile services, employer-based clinics, health navigators, insurance inclusion), exploring their strengths and weaknesses, and assessing gaps in impact evaluation. We intend to generate recommendations for scalable, equity-oriented care models that are sensitive to migrants’ lived conditions.

Impact

The resulting synthesis will provide Gulf policymakers, health planners, NGOs and funders with an evidence base to select, adapt and scale more inclusive primary care modalities. Over time, better designed policies and service models could reduce unmet health needs, lower avoidable morbidity, and improve wellbeing in a population that is often invisible to formal health systems. More broadly, this work can contribute to global thinking on how to integrate migrant populations into equitable health care systems.