Germany is an immigration country and nearly a quarter of its population has a migration background. Thus, there is
increasingly a need for reliable information on the health situation of people with a migration background. The Robert
Koch Institute is in charge of expanding its health monitoring to improve the representation of people with a migration
background in interview and examination surveys. Studies adequately need to reflect the health status of people with a
migration background and currently the Robert Koch Institute’s representative interview and examination surveys for
adults do not fully achieve this. At the end of 2016, therefore, the Improving Health Monitoring in Migrant Populations
(IMIRA) project was initiated aiming to expand the Robert Koch Institute’s health monitoring to people with migration
background and improve their involvement in health surveys in the long-term. This includes carrying out two feasibility
studies to test strategies to reach and recruit people with migration background for interview surveys and develop
measures to overcome language barriers in examination surveys. In order to expand health reporting on migration and
health, a reporting concept and a core indicator set will be developed and the potential of (secondary) data sources will
be tested. Furthermore, plans foresee the testing and further development of relevant specific migration sensitive survey
instruments and indicators, as well as increasing networking with relevant stakeholders.