Out of the Loop: (In)access to Health Care for Migrant Workers in Canada

Needs, Risks, and Context in Sexual Health Among Temporary Foreign Migrant Farmworkers in Canada: A Pilot Study with Mexican and Caribbean Workers

“…Although in theory most MFWs in Canada can access the public health care system, studies have found that close to one-half of SAWP workers go on working rather than risk losing wages, angering employers, or being sent home sick [11,26]. Our participants expressed similar attitudes, caused not only by practical environmental barriers, but also by economic and psychological barriers.…”

“…As the previous literature on the structural vulnerability of SAWP workers in Canada has shown [2,5,7], such psychological barriers are an inevitable by-product of the skewed power relationship between the MFWs and employers resulting from ''employerspecific work visas'' which prevent workers' mobility in Canada and the ''repatriation system'' which allows employers to send workers home for any reason [27]. The ''context of risks'' that hinders MFWs seeking help for their sexual health embodies this structural flaw within SAWP [2,4,6,10,11,20,26]. As the ''structural-environmental risk for HIV'' [14] model advocates, further interventions for HIV and sexual health for MFWs should shift from a disease/risk behavior centered approach to a more holistic approach which reflects MFWs' everyday experiences.…”

“…Like research in the United States [8,9], a number of studies in Canada have also found that MFWs face occupational risks and barriers to accessing health care and compensation [2,10,11]. Nevertheless, the amount of research focused on HIV/ AIDS and sexual health for MFWs is still scarce in Canada.…”

Migrant worker experiences in Atlantic Canadian fish processing plants

“…Migrant workers in Canada have been the subject of considerable scholarly attention, with scholarship highlighting how migrant workers, through migrant worker programs, are tied to specific employers; are vulnerable to exploitation and abuse; lack clear pathways to permanent residency; and are often manipulated in the recruitment process (Goldring et al ; Nakache et al ; Hennebry ; Basok and Belanger 2016). Both scholars and many public actors have argued that employers have used these migrant worker programs to lower wages and increase flexibility, while displacing better paid domestic workers (e.g., Preibisch ; Knott ).…”

“…Research in the Canadian context—which initially focused on migrant workers’ experiences in agricultural work or with live‐in caregiver programs but has since expanded—points to the broader challenges workers face with precarious work and the Canadian programs that can foster such precariousness. This literature includes analyses of British Columbia's live‐in caregiver program (see Walia ; Chowdhury and Gutman ), low‐skilled workers in Alberta's service sector (see Shantz ) and oil sands industry (see Foster et al 2015; Barnetson and Foster ), and agriculture workers in Ontario and Quebec (see Hennebry ; Basok et al ; Reid‐Musson ; Basok and Bélanger ). This research has demonstrated the numerous challenges found within temporary migration programs, including the time‐restricted nature of work visas, employer ties, and migrant debt (Strauss and McGrath ).…”