Newcomers and work

Institute for Work & Health researchers are helping fill a gap in the occupational health and safety system: the need for information tailored to immigrant workers, delivered to them through the services they regularly access at the community level.

Published: May 2011

In this presentation, Dr. Agnieszka Kosny and Marni Lifshen talk about a project that examined the services, programs and resources available to newcomers to Canada that focus on employment standards, occupational health and safety and workers’ compensation. They discuss trends in the types of resources available, identify important gaps, and highlight case studies of programs that present interesting opportunities for providing this information to newcomers.

Published: May 2011

The experiences of recent immigrants who are injured on the job, including their knowledge of their rights, encounters with employers and health-care providers, and experiences with injury reporting and claim filing, are detailed in this study report from the Institute for Work & Health.

Published: April 2011

This national scan from the Institute for Work & Health looks at some of the services, programs and resources on occupational health & safety and workers' compensation that are available to recent immigrants to Canada. It also discusses trends in the types of resources available, identifies important gaps, and highlights case studies of programs that present interesting opportunities for providing this information to newcomers.

Published: March 2011

Based on a qualitative study with new immigrants and service providers, this presentation will examine new immigrants’ experiences of injury reporting and claim filing. Suggested are some ways that policies and practices related to injury prevention, health and safety education and workers’ compensation can be changed to better serve new immigrant workers.

Published: December 2010

Research by IWH team confirms for Manitoba the need to increase OHS awareness among newcomers.

Published: September 2009

In this presentation, Dr. Peter Smith reports the results of a recently completed project at the Institute for Work & Health examining OHS risk factors, work injuries and compensation after injury among recent immigrant workers in Canada. The results suggest that recent immigrants to Canada face a number of OHS hazards that put them at increased risk of work-related injuries requiring medical attention. In addition, the results suggest recent immigrants are at an increased risk of not receiving any compensation following a work-related absence of seven days or longer.

Published: February 2009

Immigrants often experience poorer conditions when they go off to work compared with their neighbours who were born in Canada, even years after settling here. These findings emerged from two new studies by researchers at the Institute for Work & Health (IWH).

Published: August 2008

Immigrant and migrant workers face different issues than Canadian-born employees, such as language barriers and lack of knowledge about their rights. As the immigrant population increases, this is becoming a growing area of research and policy attention.

Published: February 2007