The pandemic is aggravating health inequalities, particularly mental health inequalities, while revealing the social determinants of these inequalities, including migration as a social determinant that mediates the interaction of social, economic, cultural, institutional, and structural factors with health indicators. Therefore, it is of most relevance to identify the multiple interconnected factors that influence the mental health and well-being of migrant populations. A scoping review was developed to map the research performed in this area and to identify any gaps in knowledge, following the PRISMA extension for scoping reviews. MEDLINE, Scopus, and WHO Global Health research databases on COVID-19 were searched from January 2020 to October 2021. The review followed the inclusion criteria Population/Concept/Context (PCC): Population-Adult International migrants (including refugees, asylum seekers, and undocumented migrants); Concept-determinants of (and factors influencing) mental health and well-being; Context-COVID-19 anywhere in the world. Of the sixty-five selected studies, eleven were from European countries and were the focus of this review with special attention to health inequalities experienced by migrants in Europe. The results cover a diversity of themes related to the effects of COVID-19 on the mental health of migrants (country-level environmental factors, social determinants of mental health, mental health indicators and outcomes), responses (such as solidarity and resilience), populations, and study methods. The evidence found can inform recommendations and interventions focused on health promotion and mitigation of the inequalities accentuated by the pandemic.

Becoming a mother in the context of migration configures itself as a dynamic process of identity constitution that raises questions about citizenship, belonging, and migration policies. Furthermore, it is a process that involves a new set of maternal positions and practices that are composed through possibly conflicting cultural values. Based on the occurrence of unplanned pregnancies, this study sought to analyze the dimensions crossed by this event through an intersectional perspective of the narratives of Cape Verdean immigrant women who had children in Portugal, focusing on gender, migration, race/ethnicity. In-depth interviews were conducted with nine women, born in Cape Verde and residing in Greater Lisbon, through the Biographic-Narrative Interpretative Method (BNIM), which enabled an approach to the different dimensions that intersect in life stories of becoming an immigrant mother. Thematic analysis was chosen as an analytical tool, and the framework provided by intersectionality allows us to see the multiple identities that shape the processes of becoming a migrant mother. The results brought to light themes and issues that overlap and make motherhood more complex in the context of migration, highlighting and reinforcing the conditions of inequality.