African families often relocate abroad for better opportunities, education, and quality of life. However, these moves also expose them to unique health challenges, such as adjusting to different healthcare systems and dealing with culture shock. These pressures can significantly affect the health of immigrants abroad.
Access to Healthcare Services
Nigerian families living abroad may face significant health challenges in navigating foreign healthcare systems. This is often due to language, documentation, and financial constraints.
Health Insurance Issues: In the US, healthcare is heavily reliant on insurance, which many Nigerian & African immigrants do not have. This makes healthcare unaffordable for many and cause delays in seeking medical attention for treatable conditions.
Documentation: Immigrant families may face challenges in accessing public health services due to their legal status. This is especially noticeable in countries with strict immigration laws, where undocumented immigrants often avoid healthcare due to fear of deportation.
 Cultural Misalignment: African families also face language barriers and struggle to communicate health concerns effectively. On the other hand, healthcare providers in host countries may lack understanding of cultural contexts, making culturally sensitive care challenging.
Mental Health Challenges
Mental health issues are a growing concern for Nigerian families abroad, exacerbated by the stress of migration, cultural dislocation, and the pressure to succeed.
Adaptation Stress: Many immigrants frequently experience adaptation stress, a psychological distress resulting from fitting to a new culture. This often leads to feelings of isolation, frustration, and depression, magnified by the pressure to maintain cultural identity.
Stigma Around Mental Health: In Nigeria, mental health is stigmatized, leading to misunderstandings of conditions like depression and anxiety. This type of stigma can hinder immigrant communities from seeking help, as parents may be hesitant to acknowledge their children's mental health struggles due to fear of shame or lack of understanding.
Generation Gap Issues: Nigerian immigrants' children often face a cultural gap between their parents' expectations and the societal norms of their host country. The result is often more stress, conflicts, alienation, anxiety, depression, and identity crises.
Chronic Diseases
The prevalence of chronic diseases like hypertension, diabetes, and obesity is another significant health concern for Nigerian families abroad.
Hypertension and Cardiovascular Issues: Immigrants adopting a Western diet and sedentary lifestyle are at greater risk of cardiovascular diseases. Lifestyle changes in foreign countries, such as increased processed food consumption and reduced physical activity, can heighten these risks. Unfortunately, these risks are magnified in Nigerians who have a genetic predisposition to hypertension.
Diabetes: Similarly, diabetes rates are rising among immigrant populations, including Nigerians. Limited access to healthcare, coupled with dietary changes and lack of exercise, contributes to the growing number of diabetes cases.
Obesity: Nigerian families abroad are adapting to new food environments, where healthy options may be expensive or difficult to find. The shift from traditional African diets to processed foods has led to rising obesity rates. This has impacted all ages, and increasing concerns like childhood obesity.
Maternal and Child Health
Maternal and child health is a significant concern for Nigerian families abroad, especially for women who are pregnant or have young children.
Pregnancy Complications: Pregnant African women living abroad may face complications due to cultural differences in prenatal and postnatal care, as foreign healthcare systems may not align with traditional practices, leading to confusion or dissatisfaction. Racial disparities in maternal healthcare, particularly in the U.S. and the U.K., have been found to increase complications or maternal mortality rates for Black women.
Childhood Nutrition and Immunization: African parents face challenges in ensuring their children receive proper nutrition and immunization due to culturally appropriate food access in foreign countries and misinformation or distrust in the healthcare system, leading to concerns about their children's nutrition.
Healthcare Disparities
Racial bias in healthcare is a significant issue, with studies showing that Black immigrants, including Nigerians, often receive lower-quality care compared to their white counterparts.
Mistrust in Healthcare Systems: Racial discrimination in healthcare and biased treatment can cause mistrust among African families, who may hesitate to seek medical attention due to fear of insufficient attention or substandard care.
Health Inequities: African immigrants face health challenges due to social determinants like housing, employment, and education, exacerbating existing inequities and hindering family well-being.
Conclusion
African families living abroad face various health issues, including healthcare access, mental health concerns, chronic diseases, and racial bias. To address these, a comprehensive approach is needed, including culturally sensitive healthcare, mental health support, and reducing health disparities. This will help Nigerian immigrants receive the necessary care to thrive in their new environments.