It is known that language barriers and cultural misunderstandings contribute to significant problems that can occur in education, counseling and especially in medical diagnosis and treatment of migrants. Furthermore, the lack of knowledge about contacts and care facilities leads to a deterioration of their living situation. Only someone who knows  and understands the offers of the health care system can use it.(Halle is home to around 9000 foreign citizens from 135 countries. The number of people with an immigrant background is much greater. Because of language barriers and cultural differences, it is particularly difficult for these people to find their way in an unfamiliar health care system. This fact was in October 2006 the reason to work in the municipal working group "Migration and Integration" an appropriate guide for migrants living in Halle.

In the context of health promotion conference of the city of Halle in October 2006 a working group "Migration and Health" was established with the aim of creating a health guide. Under the auspices of the Health Department and the Immigration Advisory Board and in cooperation with stakeholders in the integration network and the municipal representative for integration, this task was achieved. Besides the members of the working group (see last page of the brochure), who contributed with great commitment to this publication, the Doctors Association of Saxony-Anhalt and especially the BKK State Association East (provincial representative of Saxony-Anhalt) provided great support. The consultation and development of the content and the layout design was carried out at the regular meeting of the project group. The coordination was in the hands of the meeting center for foreigners and Germans of the youth workshop "Happy Future" Halle-Saale district association.

The result was a comprehensive intercultural guide in broschure format, which was published in German, English, French and Russian in February 2008 with a total of 147 pages and a circulation of 400 pieces from the PARITÄTISCHEN Saxony-Anhalt association, Regional Office South. All translations are named in a brochure and labeled in a language of contents.
In an online version all four languages plus a Vietnamese translation as a PDF version are available at http://www.halle.de/de/Rathaus-Stadtrat/Digitales-Rathaus/Veroeffentlic… and at http://jw-frohe-zukunft.de/service/downloads/gesundheitsfuhrer.( The response to the publication is very good and the demand is so high that the printed copies are no longer available. This guide was handed out through the counseling centers for migrants, the city health department and the Representative for Integration.

The demand for this publication indicates a great need for multilingual information on health issues, care and support facilities and other points of contact.(These positive experiences were the reason to develop another information service, which is aimed specifically at young expectant parents with an immigrant background (Project realization in 2009 by the SPI GmbH in cooperation with the health department, the social services and the integration network based on the Welcome pack for newborns, written in German).( Multilingual offers in this form do contribute to establish a friendly and warm welcome for people of different cultural origin countries in the municipality.

The target group of this project are foreign people and those with immigrant background living in Halle who still have little knowledge of German language and who are not familiar with the German health care system.

The publication of the guide was supported by grants from the provision of National Association BKK Ost, country representative of Saxony-Anhalt.(With the working group "Migration and Integration" all human and technical resources were pooled, allowing a detailed and specialist multilingual research.(The coordination of the project benefited from the experience and the broad spectrum of cross-cultural knowledge of the staff of the meeting center for foreigners and German youth in the workshop "Happy Future" Halle-Saale district association.