Canadian Labour Market as a Dispiriting Phenomenon on Skilled Migrants: Mental Health Consequences on Immigrant Canadians
Open Access
- 1 January 2019
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Scientific Research Publishing, Inc. in Sociology Mind
- Vol. 09 (03), 151-167
- https://doi.org/10.4236/sm.2019.93011
Abstract
The main purpose of the 2003 first Minister on Health Care Renewal Accord was to ensure that Canadians received accessible, sustainable and portable healthcare. In spite of these provisions, the health of immigrants in Canada living in various provinces continues to fall through the cracks. How does the labor market situation of unemployment and underemployment affect the mental health conditions of immigrants and their access to healthcare? What role do gender, race, and income play in getting access to quality and specialized health care in the provinces? This paper examines the impact of unemployment, underemployment and Term employment on the mental health of immigrants in Canada. The paper uses the author-ethnographic narrative, Spirituality and Healthcare model, anti-racist and anti-colonial theories to foreground immigrants’ experiences in Canada. It concludes that the difficulty of navigating through and penetrating the Canadian labor market for immigrants with foreign training especially the minority groups, grossly limits their integration into the economic mainstream and consequently, their optimal productivity to the society. Failure to secure decent jobs after retraining, with the hope of being accepted by Canadian employers, often leads to depression and other health issues.Keywords
This publication has 20 references indexed in Scilit:
- The prevalence of over-qualification and its association with health status among occupationally active new immigrants to CanadaEthnicity & Health, 2010
- Access to health‐care in Canadian immigrants: a longitudinal study of the National Population Health SurveyHealth & Social Care in the Community, 2010
- Access to Primary and Preventive Care among Foreign‐Born Adults in Canada and the United StatesHealth Services Research, 2010
- ‘Education? It is irrelevant to my job now. It makes me very depressed …’: exploring the health impacts of under/unemployment among highly skilled recent immigrants in CanadaEthnicity & Health, 2009
- Anti-oppressive Practice in Mental HealthJournal of Progressive Human Services, 2008
- Self-rated health within the Canadian immigrant population: risk and the healthy immigrant effectSocial Science & Medicine (1982), 2005
- Secular schools, spirituality and Maori valuesJournal of Moral Education, 2004
- “Brain Abuse”, or the Devaluation of Immigrant Labour in CanadaAntipode, 2003
- Impact of employment-related experiences on immigrants' psychological well-being and adaptation to Canada.Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science / Revue canadienne des sciences du comportement, 1996
- Equity in health care: Methodological contributions to the analysis of hospital utilization within CanadaSocial Science & Medicine (1982), 1995