Issue ? 27. June 2011

Access to Health Care and Education for Migrant Children: Case of the Great Britain

Sergei V. Bogdanov – Ph.D., associate professor, Political History Department, School of Public Administration, Lomonosov Moscow State University.
E-mail: Bogdanov@spa.msu.ru  

Irina V. Yakovleva – graduate student, Management Sociology Department, School of Public Administration, Lomonosov Moscow State University.
E-mail: irina.v.yakovleva@gmail.com

Migration problems are urgent for the states accepting migrants as for the countries of migrants outcome. One of the significant changes is the migration of women and children. The Great Britain experience may be useful for the countries with much less experience in answering the migration challenges.
The government of the UK faced several challenges in providing migrant children with medical services and education. In official documents health and well-being of children are declared priorities, which can be achieved by close cooperation of government, local authorities and non-governmental organizations. In practice, however, the health care is provided insufficiently due to poor organization on the local level. Organization of access to the education is better. Government and local authorities take measures aimed at adaptation of migrant children to the British educational and cultural environment. The main achievement during the recent years is the end of practice of child detention in asylum centers.

Keywords

UK, Great Britain, immigration, migrant children, medical services, asylum seekers, health, education, schools, immigration detention centers.