The community and structural context provides the context within which to understand and interpret the individual and household/family factors. Structural factors refer to the broader political, economic, social and environmental conditions and institutions at national, regional or international levels that either increase or decrease an individual’s likelihood of experiencing violence, exploitation or abuse before, during or after migrating. This toolkit provides guidance on how to assess the ways in which structural-level factors influence migrant vulnerability by using the assessment tool provided.  

Use of the structural factors assessment tools will only provide part of the contextual information necessary to interpret the individual and household/family factors – the community factors are also an important element of this contextual analysis. Information on conducting assessments of the individual, household/ family, and community factors can be found through the links at the bottom of this page.  

The structural factors assessment toolkit is intended mainly for use at the national or country level. However, if there is significant variation between regions within a country, it may be necessary to conduct a separate analysis for each region and to combine these assessments to form a comprehensive portrait of the situation for the whole country. This toolkit contains: (a) a discussion of different strucutral-level factors and how they influence vulnerability; (b) guidance on how to apply and adapt the assessment tool; and (c) an assessment tool to be used to gather, structure and present the information needed to assess the impact of structural-level factors on migrant vulnerability. 

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