Newcomer workers are at a higher risk of work-related injuries and illness than Canadian-born workers. Many factors play into this risk. For example, recent immigrants and refugees are more likely to work in hazardous jobs and have temporary or shift work. But they are also less likely to have knowledge about occupational health and safety (OHS) rights and responsibilities, or feel empowered to speak up about workplace hazards.
Newcomer health and safety has long been a focus of Institute for Work & Health (IWH) research. However, factors inside and outside of the workplace play a role in the quality of work available to newcomers and their risk of injury. As such, potential solutions will require collaborations within and outside of the health and safety system. To address these challenges, on November 14, the Institute convened a group of over 50 stakeholders to discuss newcomer workers’ health, and to identify key information that is needed to help ensure newcomer workers are safe and healthy at work.
Newcomers face many challenges entering the Canadian labour market and accessing work that is both healthy and safe. That’s why understanding their experiences represents a critical dimension of IWH’s research priorities,
said Dr. Peter Smith, IWH president and senior scientist, in his opening remarks. These challenges are not new. They've existed for decades. But we think it's time to bring together new and different groups to build on the research that’s been done to try to address some of these longstanding issues.
The Roundtable on the Health and Work of Newcomers to Canada, a virtual event, consisted of presentations and a panel discussion, with attendees encouraged to add their thoughts and ask questions.
To start the day off, Smith gave an overview of what’s known about newcomer work and health from past IWH research. He outlined the extent of challenges newcomers face in the labour market through these findings, including that almost half of recent immigrants to Canada are overqualified for the jobs they’re able to get. Based on Statistics Canada’s Labour Force Survey, newcomers are also paid $5 less per hour on average than Canadian-born workers. This is despite more than half having a bachelor’s degree or higher compared to just a quarter of Canadian-born individuals.
Dr. Basak Yanar, scientist at IWH, also presented her ongoing research to understand how diversity in language and culture in a workplace might affect health and safety practices. The research is based on interviews and focus groups with policy-makers, occupational health and safety (OHS) professionals, settlement service providers, employers and newcomers.
Canadian workplaces are linguistically and culturally diverse, and they have complex and vibrant structures,
said Yanar. We’ve heard from employers and workers that this kind of diversity can bring richness to a workplace.
She highlighted common practices to address challenges that she learned about in interviews. An example was how to address cultural or linguistic differences when delivering OHS training to staff. She heard about businesses translating OHS materials into various languages—through using translation apps, interpreters or turning to multilingual staff. However, Yanar noted that problems can arise if the translations don’t accurately convey the safety message, as the language used in these materials is often quite complex.
The roundtable moved on to Jocelyn Pletz of Plain Canada Clair. She shared her insights into using plain-language principles to help newcomers find, understand and use health and safety information. Pletz highlighted the importance of tailoring the language of OHS training materials for a specific audience while making the design clear and readable.
Throughout the online event, participants shared resources and examples of how their organizations have implemented strategies discussed by the presenters through the chat window.
To round out the discussion, panelists from across Canada took the spotlight. The panelists included: Paula Knight of Immigrant Services Association of Nova Scotia (ISANS), Sandra Lawson of Ontario’s Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development (MLITSD), Dr. Alain Marchand of Institut de recherche Robert-Sauvé en santé et en sécurité du travail (IRSST), Anne Tennier of Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) and Rania Younes of Immigrant Employment Council of British Columbia (IEC-BC).
Each panelist took turns describing their organization’s efforts toward ensuring newcomers’ health and safety at work and where they thought new research evidence is needed to address challenges in this area. A question from a participant also provoked a discussion about how to address the mental health concerns of newcomers using approaches that can be implemented across sectors.
Questions to the panelists spurred some ideas for future research, such as how to evaluate existing newcomer health and safety initiatives, and how newcomers and employers prefer to receive health and safety information. Panelists also discussed the need for data on how the health and safety of newcomer workers may vary by sector.
Much of the day’s discussion centered around the need for a coordinated effort across sectors to address newcomer health and safety in and outside of the workplace.
Smith echoed this second theme in his closing remarks. This is the start of a discussion, not the end. We hope to create connections with you all, and hope that you also make connections with each other so we can continue this conversation.
A meeting summary will be linked here when available. The summary describes initiatives being implemented already by attendees to address key challenges in this area. It also details the areas identified by attendees where future research is needed to address these challenges.