Cross-cultural health issues in contemporary Australia

Abstract

In recent decades, Australia has rapidly become one of the more ethnically diverse societies with over 120 different languages groups and 41.9% of the population having at least one parent born overseas. This presents a great challenge for decision-makers and service providers to plan and provide effective and responsive health services for communities with such diverse languages, cultural backgrounds, migration circumstances and socioeconomic status. In order to offer equitable, culturally sensitive and appropriate health services, there is a pressing need to identify and manage cross-cultural health issues. This paper will first clarify concepts fundamental to the understanding of cross-cultural phenomena. It will then discuss several priority migrant health issues including communication breakdown, reproductive health, mental health, workplace health and safety, and doubly disadvantaged groups. Finally it will recommend measures to address the above issues and to promote equity, access and quality in health care for migrants.