Canada; seen as a “better place”

Here in Canada we see a lot of immigrants come into our country. Most immigrants come to either find a job or join our country because they say it’s a “better place” to start a family. Although they may say Canada is a “better place” there are many barriers that immigrants and refugees face. There is very little difference between an immigrant and a non-immigrant when it comes to health status. In Immigrants Status and Unmet… ( Wu, Z., Penning, J. M., Schimmele, M. C. , 2005) It explains that immigrants often face barriers and unmet needs that lead to poor health.  A few barriers that are faced are language, social isolation, the loss of culture and religion. I’d personally think the biggest barrier for immigrants would be language. Not being able to understand or speak English may lead to many other issues. 

What I want to get to though is the language barrier and the relation to health care that is provided to immigrant women in Canada. As we all know Canada has a free health care system. Even though immigrants come to Canada with this free assess many still experience limited services of health care especially those women who aren’t able to use these resources because of their family, job, or cultural expectations (Newbold, 2009, p. 546). I came across this short video that I found interesting and something that I was unaware of. This service in Toronto called the “Mobile Health Clinic”, is particularly for immigrant and refugee women to use, regarding their reproductive health. This clinic on wheels provides women with a service, so that they are able to talk with a doctor or nurse that speaks their first language and someone who understands them. In this video it said that they provide up to 14 different languages to provide immigrants and refugee women with. Although i think that's a great idea I think we need to help theses individuals learn the language so that they can be aware of the many things that they may be missing out on. 

Immigrants have reported to have fairly good health, but those who don’t speak English are less frequently to report their health as good (Flowler,1998, p.388). One problem can affect many other things and people may not even realize it.  In society not having the access to the language that others speak around you is a challenge that can often cause depression, and other health issues.  In Canada services such as schools are there to provide younger individuals this second language.  When we look at women or women who are raising children, it's not as easy to get this access. We need to look into more services for individuals to go to in order to learn English as a second language, this will help immigrant and refugee individuals out socially and give them access to jobs and of course that better life!

-Samantha

References:

Flowler, N. (1998). Providing primary health care to Immigrants and Refugees: the North Hamilton experience. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 159(4), 388-391.

IWH Centre. (2010, November 9). Immigrant women’s health centre 2010. Retrieved from:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxvdzavj5KY

Newbold, K. B. (2009). Health care use and the Canadian immigrant population. International Journal of Health services, 39(3), 545-565.

Wu, Z., Penning, J. M., Schimmele, M. C. (2005). Immigrant status and unmet health care needs. Canadian Journal of Public Health, 96(5), 369-373 .