Immigration and Food Insecurity: The Canadian Experience—A Literature Review

Abstract

Canada is a popular destination for immigrants and integration of newcomers is an important strategy for its demographic growth and economic development. Food insecurity disproportionately affects newcomers in Canada; unfortunately, they occupy the lower end of the socioeconomic spectrum and thus adding to the burden of socio-cultural challenges they are already facing. The high level of food insecurity contributes to poor diet quality and the rise in overweight and other chronic health conditions and therefore to the loss of healthy immigrant status. Indeed, statistical evidence, mainly of the overall Canadian population, demonstrates that individuals living in food-insecure households have higher rates of self-reported poor health and chronic health conditions. Therefore, understanding and properly addressing the factors associated with food insecurity among Canadian immigrants is crucial for an adequate integration of immigrants. This chapter suggests that an adequate and appropriate understanding of food security for Canadian immigrant populations requires consideration of a cultural perspective in addition to the traditional individual, household and community levels and the development of measurement tools to capture this cultural dimension. It is proposed the concept of cultural food insecurity encompasses the four usual dimensions (availability, accessibility, utilization, and stability) and a newly proposed fifth cultural dimension. Future research should aim at validating the relevance of this cultural perspective as a fifth pillar for food security and developing measurement tools to assess it.

Food insecurity among Finnish private service sector workers: validity, prevalence and determinants

“…Hence, our study sample may not be completely representative of all PAM members, but it seems that Finnish-speaking non-student members were reasonably well captured. Because severe food insecurity was more common among men and young age groups in our study, and among immigrants in other studies (21,22) , it would seem more likely that the levels of food insecurity in this study were underestimates rather than overestimations of food insecurity levels in all PAM members. Furthermore, the fact that response rates are often lower among people of lower socio-economic status (54) and food insecurity is higher among groups of lower socio-economic status further supports this interpretation.…”

“…There are similar findings worldwide, as food insecurity has been found to be a consequence of multiple economic and resource issues such as lower household income (5,7,8,(14)(15)(16) , lack of assets and savings (17) and income instability (18,19) . Other vulnerabilities such as receiving disability pensions/benefits (7,20) , being a single-parent household (6,7) , having lower education (3,5) , being an immigrant or asylum seeker (8,21,22) , and renting housing (14) have also been associated with food insecurity. Food insecurity has also been linked with unhealthy diets (4,6,7,23) and lower nutrients intake (24) .…”

An Overview of Food Security Statuses in Afghan Refugees in Iran

“…Use of pesticides and fertilizers, availability of Halal products for particular cultures and lack of easy access to organic foods due to their high costs have been major concerns of immigrants and refugees in Canada. Furthermore, it is important that many immigrants do not have the proper knowledge of healthy foods and need financial supports, especially within the first five years of entry, to achieve healthy and adequate foods (26,27).…”

The Effects of Migration on the Mental Health of Immigrant Children in Canada

“…One factor that often goes hand-in-hand with poverty, and that many immigrant families and children experience, is food insecurity. Food security "is achieved when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life" (Tarraf et al, 2017). Foreign born individuals tend to have an inadequate consumption of micronutrients, face higher levels of food insecurity, and experience more mental health issues in comparison to native-born Canadians (Davison & Gondara, 2021).…”