The Healthy Immigrant Effect in Canada: Understandings of Debility: A Literature Review

Immigrants generally start with better-than-average health at the time of their immigrant application and arrival to Canada. This is done through a careful and precise process that rules out disability. Many later faced disabling social determinants of health, such as poor housing, difficulty navigating the education system, precarious working environments, and lack of social support networks. Immigrants are among the most vulnerable members of society, facing xenophobia, judgment, discrimination, and otherness (Dada, 2022). Although it is masked with welcoming faces and implicit suggestions that they are “lucky” to be given a chance to immigrate to Canada and start a new life for themselves. The truth is that once they have immigrated, the journey is incomplete; it is only the start of a new, complex and exhausting journey (Dada, 2022). Most immigrants coming to Canada are here to start families or smaller families looking for new opportunities. Immigrant parents often face challenges adjusting to a new system, supporting their children through school systems that are foreign to them, working to make ends meet and adjusting to a new environment where they are separated and distanced from their families, the majority moving from collectivistic cultures into a more individualistic atmosphere that triggers a culture shock. How are current health policies enough to support the journey post-immigration? What support is available to immigrants, and how can they be better met? From a health policy point of view, many chronic health conditions can be avoided or prevented through health policy implementations and access to healthcare. Immigrants often face language barriers when moving to Canada, and that can impact navigating healthcare settings and school systems. Immigrants are often not aware of mental health and health resources that can be available to them, often leading them to suffer on their own.