Migration continues to play a significant role in shaping the population within Birmingham. The scale and complexity of migration over the past 10 years, which has been affected by the asylum seeker dispersal programme and the enlargement of the European Union, creates challenges in the delivery of health services. These new arrivals are a heterogeneous group.

Birmingham is home to individuals from most nations in the world who have come to the UK for different reasons and via different migratory routes. These new arrivals also have different rights to employment, education, health and social welfare.

The differences in language, culture and understanding of the health services combine with the above factors to create barriers to accessing health and social care, and increase the vulnerability for members of these communities. The service will focus on meeting the needs of all vulnerable migrants who have arrived in the City over the past 5 years. This includes the following groups:

—Asylum Seekers supported the UK Border Agency (UKBA),
— Asylum Seekers who are unsupported and living in the City,
— Refugees who have been unable to access health services,
— Vulnerable migrants – including failed asylum seekers and others with no recourse to Public Funds, economic migrants and those in the UK under family formation/settlement routes,
— Unaccompanied minors.