Refugee community refers to any community that has been given residency status in another country due to deterioration conditions in their home country. They can be defined as any community that lives in a foreign land. Since their freedom is restricted in different ways, refugee communities are faced with many challenges. They are faced with tough economic conditions since they have to rely on organizations like United Nations and others to received economic aids. In some refugee countries, refugees live in crowded camps where provision of basic healthcare is restricted. After decades of war, there are hundreds of thousands of Afghan refuges who are currently living in refugee camps in different countries in the world.  They are faced with different challenges economical, socially, and politically.

Refugee communities are faced with many challenges. During the time of displacement, most refugees find it difficult to get the proper documents that can assist them to get employed and therefore they live a hard life trying to make their ends meet. In some countries, refugees are not allowed to work which makes them solely reliant on the food rations they get from the host government or international organizations like United Nations (Juliene and Patricia, 1997).   This has been the situation Afghan refugees have been facing. They find it difficult to access secure jobs which can assist them to support their families.  This means that lack of jobs also makes it difficult for them to afford quality medical services for their families.  For those who find jobs, they cannot get secure jobs which will assist them to live like other people in the society.

The greatest challenges that refugees face in any society is prejudice and discrimination. They are perceive as outsiders in the society and hence are not treated as equals. In most cases, their cultural practices are not the same as those of hosting community and this cultural difference brings about prejudice and discrimination. Afghan refugee community, especially in Iran, has expressed their dismal life trying to mix with the host community. They are discriminated and prejudiced based on their place of origin and cultural difference with the host community (Garret, 2006). As a result of prejudice and discrimination, refugee communities are isolated from mainstream life in the society. They are isolated from accessing important service like medical services which are important in their life (Ruiz and Emergy, 2001).  In addition, refugees also face emotional isolation which is caused by stress. Refugee communities have recorded higher incidences of stress and depression compared to the hosting community and this has an impact on their health status.

Refugee communities also find it difficult to afford decent housing (Shahid, 2000). Since they are limited economically, they are not in position to get good housing for their families and are left to live in crowded camps.  A whole family can be forced to share on tent which poses the risk of increase incidence of contagious disease and air bone disease.

Refugee communities are also faced with various health challenges. Living under crowded conditions, refugee communities are more likely to suffer from high prevalence of contagious disease and other water and food borne disease. Childhood illnesses and other communicable disease are great impediments to their health. They are left to rely on medical camps which are provided by non-governmental organizations and well wishers.

There are many ways in which this group's social structure intersects with their health experience. In the above analysis of refuges community, there are a number of highlights that have been made in reference to problems refugee communities face and how they impact on their health. Social structure of refugee communities is closely related to their health experiences in a number of aspects.

One of the major health problem facing Afghan refugees is their mental problem which as been elicited by the kind of life they live refugee camps. According to United Nations, refugees living refugee camps at home or in foreign countries have been found to have challenging mental issues due to  traumatic incidences they have to go through in their life.  Afghan refugees, especially women have challenging mental health issues since they have been left with the burden of taking care of their families as their husbands were killed or are recruited by government forces or militias (Miller 2005). Majority of Afghan women shows high incidences of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, adjustment disorders, and others (Park, 2002).  This has been contributed by different factors among them lack of familial and social structure which can offer psychosocial support for the refugees.

Afghan refugees' living environment is has a lot of impact on their health.  Living in crowded place poses the risk of getting communicable diseases (Quddus and Jafar 2009). Research evidence shows that Afghan refugees show high prevalence of communicable diseases compared to people living outside the refugee camps (Rajabali et al. 2009). This is considered a great danger to their health considering the fact that they are not in a position to get health attention soon as they get sick. In addition, their living environment make it hard to access clean water and other basic needs which means they are exposed to water and food borne diseases like typhoid and others.  One of the major implications of living in depressed economic situation out of their natural homes is difficulties in getting foods (UNHCR, 2010).  The food rations given are not enough and this comes with impact on their ability to fight disease. The rates of malnutrition are high especially among children while the rest of the population cannot get good food to build their immune system.