Mediterranean Back and Other Stereotypes: A Review of the Australian Literature Dealing with Industrial Back Injuries

This paper analyses the attitudes to migrants evident in much of the Australian literature dealing with industrial back injuries. Both medical and lay writers believe that migrants, especially those from Southern Europe, are over-represented among patients complaining of occupationally induced back pain. It is also widely believed that migrants are more prone than Australian born workers to malingering and psychosomatic complications of back injury. However no firm statistical evidence for this viewpoint was discovered. Three small studies which tend to refute it are discussed.