• Sexual health

Three per cent of the world's population—214 million people approximately—can be defined as international migrants and nearly half of them are women.1 The most common reason people have for migration is seeking economic improvement. Therefore, economic migrants are, on the whole, young and fit when they arrive in a new country and at an age when sexual activity and partner change is frequent. Emotional isolation is common and they build new friendships and relationships. On this basis, one would anticipate that the sexual health of economic migrants would have been highlighted as one of their major health issues but, unfortunately, it has not. This issue of Sexually Transmitted Infections contains three papers2–4 on the sexual health of Central and Eastern European (CEE) migrants in London within the SALLEE project (Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles of London's Eastern Europeans).5 These papers show new data on the sexual and HIV risk behaviour of CEE migrants,2 their patterns of genitourinary clinic attendance and frequency of sexually transmitted infection (STI) diagnosis3 and explore the sexual risk of CEE migrant men who have sex with men (MSM).4

These papers highlight some of the methodological challenges faced in trying to minimise information and selection bias when studying migrants' health.6 One …