Compared to Europe's mean immigrant contingent of 7.3 to 8.6% Switzerland holds the highest contingent of foreign population with 23.5%. Therefore it is of utmost importance that physicians have a knowledge of the specific characteristics of immigrant patients. The influence of personality factors (experience, behavior) is not independent from the influence of culturallyrelated environmental factors (regional differences in diet, pollutants, meanings, etc.). In addition, differentcultural groups rate their quality of life differently. Psychological reasons for recurrent abdominal pain are stress (life events), effects of self-medication (laxatives, cocaine) and sexual abuse but also rare infectious diseases are more common among immigrants (e.g. tuberculosis, histoplasmosis, etc.). Migration-specific characteristics are mainly to find in the semiotics of the symptoms: not every abdominal pain is real pain in the abdomen. Finally, it is crucial to make the distinction between organic, functional and psychological- related pain. This can, however, usually only be accomplished in the context of the entire situation of a patient and, depending on the situation, with the support of a colleague from the appropriate cultural group or an experienced interpreter. In this review we limit ourselves to the presentation of the working population of the migrants, because these represent the largest group of all migrants. The specific situation of asylum seekers will also be refrained to where appropriate. © 2011 by Verlag Hans Huber, Hogrefe AG, Bern.

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cultural value Social Values Communication Barriers Diagnosis, Differential psychological aspect abdominal pain histoplasmosis human Life Change Events Refugees recurrent disease illness behavior Algorithms cocaine quality of life Humans Cross-Cultural Comparison Emigrants and Immigrants tuberculosis Risk Factors Review Behavior self medication laxative sexual abuse experience pollutant migration Age Factors infection Somatoform Disorders dietary intake Switzerland