Table 1.
Data sources included in primary outcomes data, clinical outcomes (cases, hospitalisations, deaths).
| Authors* | Location | Population | Study design | Publication type | Study period | Sample size | Methods | Key results | Quality appraisal score (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| COVID-19 cases | |||||||||
| Guttman (Guttmann et al., 2020) | Ontario, Canada | Migrants and refugees | Population-based case/ testing data | Grey | To 13 June | 624,386 tested | Rates of COVID-19 testing and percentage positivity in migrants, and relationship with socioeconomic factors | Migrants accounted for 43.5% of all COVID-19 cases but make up just over 25% of the population; migrants had lower rates of testing but a higher percentage positivity in those tested (refugees 10.4% positive, other migrants 7.6%, and Canadian-born 2.6%) | 6/10 (60) |
| Sundaram (Sundaram et al., 2020) | Ontario, Canada | Migrants | Spatial comparison | Pre-print | 1 March to 20 June | 25,050 diagnoses | Association between COVID-19 diagnosis and percentage of migrants by area | Living in an area with a greater percentage of immigrants was positively associated with rate of COVID-19 diagnosis | 8/8 (100) |
| Kim (Kim et al., 2020) | Washington DC, USA | Non-English speakers | Case/testing data | Peer-reviewed publication | 29 February to 31 May | 562,242 tested | Rates of COVID-19 testing and percentage positivity in non-English speakers versus English speakers | Non-English speakers were tested less frequently for COVID-19 (4.7% vs 5.6%) but were more likely to receive a positive result (18.6% vs 4.0%) | 6/8 (75) |
| Norweigan Institute of Public Health (Norweigan Institute of Public Health [Folkehelseinstituttet] 2020a) | Norway | Migrants | Population-based case data | National statistics | To 4 May | 7,847 cases | Percentage of reported cases that are among the foreign-born | Migrants made up 19% of reported cases in week 12 and 42% in week 18 | N/A |
| Norweigan Institute of Public Health (Norweigan Institute of Public Health [Folkehelseinstituttet] 2020b) | Norway | Migrants | Population-based case data | National statistics | To 5 Nov | - | Incidence rate among migrants by country of origin versus those born in Norway | Until 1 July, incidence among the Somali-born was very high, but in autumn the risk increased for migrants from Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Serbia and Turkey | N/A |
| Swedish Public Health Agency (Swedish Public Health Agency (Folkhälsomyndigheten) 2020) | Sweden | Migrants | Population-based case data | National statistics | 13 March to 7 May | - | Incidence of COVID-19 by country of birth | 32% of cases were immigrants, despite making up 19% of the population; highest incidence among those born in Turkey, Ethiopia, and Somalia | N/A |
| Statens Serum Institut (Statens Serum Institut 2020) | Denmark | Migrants and their children | Population-based case data | National statistics | 29 April to 6 May | - | Case, testing and incidence data, comparing migrants and their descendants with non-migrants | Non-Western migrants and their native-born children accounted for 18% of cases, despite making up 9% of the population | N/A |
| Statens Serum Institut (Statens Serum Institut 2020) | Denmark | Migrants and their children | Population-based data on cases, hospitalisation and mortality | National statistics | 29 April to 7 September | - | Case, testing incidence, hospitalisation and mortality data, comparing migrants and their descendants with non-migrants | Non-Western migrants and their native-born children accounted for 26% of cases, and 15% of COVID-19 hospital admissions, despite making up 9% of the population | N/A |
| Guijarro (Guijarro et al., 2020) | Alcorcón, Spain | Migrants | Population-based cohort study | Pre-print | 1 February to 25 April | 152,018 residents | Incidence of COVID-19 in migrants versus Spaniards and relative risk by region of origin | Crude incidence of COVID-19 among migrants was higher than among Spaniards, at 8.71 and 6.51 per 1000 inhabitants respectively (p<0.001) | 8/8 (100) |
| Grilli (Grilli et al., 2020) | Reggio Emilia, Italy | Migrants | Population-based case data | Peer-reviewed publication | 6 March to 26 March | 2635 tested | Odds of COVID-19 infection and being tested in migrants versus Italians | Immigrants and Italians had a similar prevalence of infection (OR 0.99, 95% CI 0.82-1.20) and similar probability of being tested (OR 0.93, 95% CI 0.81-1.10) | N/A |
| Strully (Strully et al., 2020) | USA | Migrants | Spatial comparison | Peer-reviewed publication | To 28 May | - | Association of proportion of migrants living in a region with COVID-19 case rates | Percentage of foreign-born residents was positively associated with COVID-19 case rate (fully adjusted IRR = 1.106, 95% CI 1.074-1.139, p<0.01) at county level | 8/8 (100) |
| Jaqueti Aroca (Jaqueti Aroca et al., 2020) | Madrid, Spain | Migrants | Case/testing data | Peer-reviewed publication | To the second week of April | 1,781 patients | Percentage positivity among foreign-born versus Spaniards in hospitals | No significant difference in percentage positivity between migrants and Spaniards (OR 1.08, 95% CI 0.95-1.24), but those from Latin America are at higher risk; only 12.5% of positive migrants were >65 years versus 56.9% Spaniards | 8/10 (80) |
| Chew (Chew et al., 2020) | Singapore | Migrant workers | Case/testing data and clinical evaluation | Peer-reviewed publication | 11 to 19 April | 5,977 migrant workers | Review of data from an outbreak investigation among migrant workers in a dormitory, including test positivity and clinical parameters | 1832 of 5977 migrant workers were symptomatic, of which 1264 (69%) were positive for COVID-19, corresponding to 21% of the cohort | 6/10 (60) |
| Alkhamis (Alkhamis et al., 2020) | Kuwait | Migrant workers | Population-based case data | Peer-reviewed journal | 23 February to 7 May | 5988 cases | Modelling pandemic progression (spatiotemporal cluster analysis) in Kuwait citizens/ residents and migrant workers | 78.8% of COVID-19 cases were in migrant workers, 40.1% of which were of Indian nationality; significant spreading events among migrant workers | 6/10 (60) |
| Openshaw (Openshaw and Travassos, 2020) | USA | Migrants in detention centres | Viewpoint (in | Peer-reviewed publication | To May | - | Reports COVID-19 cases at ICE detention centres | Over 1200 confirmed COVID-19 cases across 52 facilities run by ICE | 6/6 (100) |
| ECDC (European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control 2020) | EU/EEA and UK | Migrants in detention centres | Report reporting cases | Grey | To June | - | Reports COVID-19 cases at detention centres in Europe | Reported outbreaks in detention centres in Germany and Portugal | 6/6 (100) |
| Ministry of Health (Ministry of Health Singapore 2020) | Singapore | Migrant workers | Population-based case data | National statistics | 18 Nov | 5,704,000 (population) | Surveillance of new confirmed cases in the past 14 days, including proportion in dorm residents | 54,502 (95.7%) of 58,135 all in-country cases of COVID-19 were in migrants residing in dormitories | 2/10 (20) |
| Ministry of Health (Ministry of Health Saudi Arabia 7 May 2020) | Saudi Arabia | Migrants | Population-based case data | National statistics | To 7 May | - | Routine surveillance | 75% of all people in-country who have tested positive for COVID-19 were migrants | N/A |
| Greek Ministry of Health (Greek Ministry of Health 2020) | Greece | Migrants and refugees | Hospital-based case data | National statistics | To 16 September | - | Routine surveillance | Almost half of COVID-19 patients hospitalised in Attica are refugees from camps/hosting sites or destitute migrants | N/A |
| Buda (Buda et al., 2020) | Germany | Refugees | Outbreaks case data | National statistics | To 11 August | - | Collation of outbreak reports, assessing the proportion in refugee centres (vs other settings such as nursing homes) | 2.5% of notified outbreaks (199 of 7864) were reported in refugee centres, comprising 7.5% (n=4,146) of all notified cases during outbreaks (n=55,141) | N/A |
| Bozorgmehr (Bozorgmehr et al., 2020) | Germany | Refugees in reception/ accommodation centres | Outbreaks case data | Grey | To 22 May | 9785 refugees | Meta-analysis of media reports in Germany to identifypooled cumulative incidence rate in refugee reception/ accommodation centres | Identified 42 outbreaks in 11 federal states, with 1769 confirmed cases; IR of 17.0% (95% CI 12.0 to 23.0, I2 = 98.3%) | N/A |
| COVID-19 hospitalisation | |||||||||
| Giorgi Rossi (Giorgi Rossi et al., 2020) | Reggio Emilia, Italy | Migrants | Population-based cohort study | Peer-reviewed publication | 27 February to 2 April | 2,653 tested | COVID-19 incidence, hospitalisation and death in migrants versus Italians | Immigrants had a higher risk of hospitalisation (HR 1.3, 95% CI 0.99-1.81) than Italians | 7/10 (70) |
| Hamadah (Hamadah H and Behbehani, 2020) | Kuwait | Migrants | Hospital-based cohort study | Peer-reviewed publication | 24 February to 20 April | 1,123 patients | Comparison of ICU admission, ARDS, pneumonia and mortality in migrants and non-migrants | Migrants had increased odds of death or ICU admission (OR 2.14, 95% CI 1.12-4.32), ARDS (OR 2.44, 95%CI 1.23-5.09) and pneumonia (OR 2.24, 95% CI 1.27-4.12) | 8/8 (100) |
| Fabiani (Fabiani et al., 2020) | Italy | Migrants | Population-based clinical and mortality data | Pre-print | 20 Feb to 19 July | 213,180 cases | Comparison of case fatality rate and rate of admission to hospital and ICU between migrants versus Italians | Non-Italian cases were diagnosed at a later date than Italian cases and were more likely to be hospitalised (ARR=1.39, 95% CI 1.33- 1.44) and admitted to an ICU (ARR=1.19, 95% CI 1.07-1.32) | 8/8 (100) |
| COVID-19 mortality | |||||||||
| Canevelli (Canevelli et al., 2020) | Italy | Migrants | Temporal comparison | Peer-reviewed publication | 21 February to 29 April | 2,687 deceased cases | Comparison of proportion of migrants in COVID-19 deaths versus all-cause mortality in 2018 | The proportion of migrants and non-migrants among COVID-related deaths (2.5% and 97.5% respectively) was similar to the estimated 2018 all-cause mortality rates (2.6% and 97.4%); but migrants were younger at the time of death versus non-migrants (71.1, SD 13.1 vs 78.3, SD 10.8, p<0.001) | 9/10 (90) |
| Public Health England (Public Health England 2020) | England | Migrants | Temporal comparison | Grey | 21 March to 8 May | - | Comparison of all-cause mortality in 2020 versus 2014-2018 in migrants and UK-born | Deaths in 2020 were over 3 times higher than 2014-2018 for those from Central and Western Africa, the Caribbean, South East Asia, Middle East, and South and Eastern Africa, versus 1.7 times higher overall in England | 8/8 (100) |
| Papon (Papon and Robert-Bobée, 2020) | France | Migrants | Temporal comparison | Grey | March to April | - | Comparison of proportion of migrants in registered deaths in 2020 versus 2014-2019 | The foreign-born represented 15% of registered deaths in March and April 2020 versus 13% in March and April 2019 | 6/10 (60) |
| Observatoire Regional de Sante Ile de France (Observatoire Regional de Sante Ile de France 2020) | Paris, France | Migrants | Spatial comparison | Grey | March 2020 | Not stated | Mortality (daily deaths) by Parisian departments (areas) compared with sociodemographic characteristics of the department. | Eg. Seine-Saint-Denis, a district in the north of Paris where 30% of the population is an immigrant, had a 188% mortality increase compared with 2019 versus a 96% increase in Paris as a whole | 1/10 (10) |
| Kunst (Kunst et al., 2020) | Netherlands | Migrants and their children | Temporal comparison | National statistics | March to April | - | Comparison of mortality in March-April versus in the preceding weeks, adjusted for seasonal factors, in migrants versus Dutch | Mortality was 47% higher than expected for immigrants from non-Western countries and their children, 49% higher for immigrants from Western countries and their children, and 38% higher for the native-born with Dutch parents | N/A |
| Hansson (Hansson et al., 2020) | Sweden | Migrants | Temporal comparison | Peer-reviewed publication | February to May | - | Comparison of all-cause mortality in 2020 versus 2016-2019 by region of birth | Among middle-aged (40-64 years) and older (>65 years) people born in Syria, Iraq and Somalia excess mortality was ~220%; among those born in Sweden, the EU, the Nordic countries or North America, excess mortality among those >65 was 19% and among the middle aged was 1% | N/A |
| Calderón-Larrañaga (Calderón-Larrañaga et al., 2020) | Stockholm, Sweden | Migrants | Spatial/ temporal comparison | Peer-reviewed publication | 6-12 April | 2,379,792 residents | Comparison of excess mortality compared with previous 5 years in areas according to share of migrants | Areas with the lowest tercile share of Swedish-born had 178% excess mortality compared with the previous 5 years | 6/10 (60) |
| Drefahl (Drefahl et al., 2020) | Sweden | Migrants | Individual-level survival analysis | Peer-reviewed publication | To 7 May | 1,189,484 py (17,181 deaths) | Risk of death from COVID-19 in individual-level data according to migrant status and region of origin | Immigrants from LMICs from the Middle East and North Africa showed increased mortality among men (HR 3.13, 95% CI 2.51-3.90) and women (HR 2.09, 95% CI 1.52-2.89) as compared to the Swedish-born | 8/10 (80) |
| Rostila (Rostila et al., 2020) | Stockholm, Sweden | Migrants | Population-based cohort study | Grey | 31 Jan to 4 May | 1,778,670 individuals | Risk of death from COVID-19 in individual-level data according to migrant status and region of origin | Migrants from Middle Eastern countries (RR 3.2, 95% CI 2.6-3.8), Africa (RR 3.0, 95% CI 2.2-4.3) and the Nordic countries (RR 1.5, 95% CI 1.2-1.8) had higher COVID-19 mortality versus the Swedish-born | 9/11 (82) |
| Centrum for epidemiologi och samhallsmediccin (Centrum for epidemiologi och samhallsmediccin RS 2020) | Stockholm, Sweden | Migrants | Individual-level survival analysis | Grey | To 30 June | - | Risk of death from COVID-19 in individual-level data according to country of birth, among those aged 25 years and older | Migrants from Somalia (HR 12.39, 95% CI 7.93-19.36), Lebanon (HR 6.19, 95% CI 3.41-11.24), and Syria (HR 6.14, 95% CI 4.28-8.80) show increased risk of death compared with Swedish-born, adjusted for age and sex | N/A |
| Cook (Cook et al., 2020) | UK | Migrant healthcare workers (HCWs) | Characterisation of reported HCW deaths | Grey | To 22 April | 106 HCWs | Proportion of UK healthcare workers who died who were born outside the UK | Of 106 UK healthcare workers who died up until 22 April 2020, at least 56 (53%) were born outside the UK | 4/10 (40) |
*Where papers report on multiple outcomes (cases, hospitalisations, deaths) papers are included under the first relevant sub-heading only