Nutritional Vulnerabilities and Dietary Disparities Among Migrant Workers in the Informal Sectors: A Global Scoping Review.

Migrant workers and their families have an increased risk of nutritional vulnerabilities. This scoping review synthesised global evidence on nutritional status, dietary inadequacies, and structural determinants of nutritional vulnerability among migrant workers. We searched PubMed, Google Scholar, and Scopus for peer-reviewed empirical studies published between January 2001 and June 2025 by following the Arksey and O'Malley framework. 59 studies were included from 1,275 identified records across different sectors. The evidence revealed a significant level of undernutrition, such as wasting, underweight, and stunting, especially in children across agricultural, brickfield, and construction settlements. Other frequently reported micronutrient-related conditions included iron-deficiency anaemia and vitamin D deficiency. A double burden of malnutrition was reported in several studies, which recorded overweight and obesity as well as undernutrition. Nutritional vulnerabilities, including food insecurity (affecting up to 87% of households), low wages, unstable employment conditions, physically demanding labour, dietary acculturation, gender-specific vulnerabilities, health inequities, and limited healthcare access, were the key determinants of the nutritional vulnerabilities. Findings highlighted migration as a structural determinant of malnutrition, operating through labour precarity, food insecurity, gendered caregiving disruptions, and exclusion from social protection systems. Critical gaps in this review include the predominance of cross-sectional designs and the limited number of intervention-based or longitudinal studies. There was also insufficient focus on mental health-nutrition linkages, left-behind family members, and intervention-based research. Nutrition-specific policies should be included in health programmes for migrant workers to reduce nutritional vulnerabilities and improve their health and well-being.

© 2026. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.