At the best of times, there are immense challenges in meeting the public health, healthcare and social care needs of migrant, ethnic, racial and other groups in modern societies globally. Over 50 years, scholars, researchers and practitioners have developed principles and exemplars of how to provide culturally competent and effective services for diverse societies. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are in the worst of times, and new thinking is required.

We are already seeing the desperate plight of migrants, particularly those in camps and detention centres awaiting their asylum claims to be examined. There is, however, a group of migrants, i.e., those labelled undocumented or irregular, or in a derogatory and inaccurate way illegal, at even greater need than other populations.