ABSTRACT:

Research has shown a “healthy immigrant effect” amongst newly arrived immigrants and refugees to Canada. This is largely due to immigrant health screenings. However, a post-arrival decline in health status occurs among, in particular, refugees, low-income immigrants, immigrants with poor English or French language skills, those with cost related barriers to health care and non-European immigrants.Metropolis research affiliate Kevin Pottie (University of Ottawa) along with a large team of medical doctors and researchers from across Canada have recently released clinical preventive care recommendations and guidelines for health practitioners who work with immigrants and refugees. The June 2010 Canadian Medical Association Journal describes theirresearch and presents recommendations for improving the health outcomes of immigrants. Stemming from the work completed by the Canadian Collaboration for Immigrant and Refugee Health research team, the guidelines detailed in the article result from rigorous evidence based methods that are aimed at complementing existing public health approaches. The research from this unique collaboration also identifies areas that require further investigation related to immigrant populations’ health access and health services.Pottie et al’s research findings and guidelines speak directly to policies related to screenings and examinations of the health of immigrants and refugees. The research demonstrates gaps in health examinations, offers descriptive syntheses of the literature in the field, and explains the current inequities in the knowledge of the health needs and services of immigrants and refugees in Canada. The Canadian Guidelines for Immigrant Health aim to “provide a foundation for improved preventive health care for immigrant populations” which can then contribute to developing strong policies and programs for serving the health needs of immigrants and refugees in Canada.

 

ABSTRACT:

In this article, Annick Lenoir-Achdjian reflects on immigrant integration in the Estrie region, using sociodemographic data on the area and city of Sherbrooke, as well as concrete examples of local integration practices. The integration of immigrants, she argues, is not just the responsibility of a single government department or a few local institutions; it depends on the combined efforts of public decision‑makers, community representatives, employers, and the local population. A welcoming and open attitude on the part of the host society is beneficial in the long term because it gives immigrants the time to find their place in their new society. Greater effort must therefore be made to raise the awareness of employers and the general public in order to sensitize them to the importance of immigration for the economic, social and cultural development of Quebec and Canada, as well as to the role that they can play to help immigrants integrate.

 

ABSTRACT:

Urban disparity is as much a social problem as it is an ethnic one. This is an important starting point of authors, Xavier Leloup and Philippe Apparicio. Their overview highlights shortcomings of research methods used in the wake of the Bouchard/Taylor Commission’s consultations on accommodation of cultural differences and subsequent riots in Montreal that point to rife and poverty in particular neighbourhoods. The authors argue that research describing the high ethnic concentration in Montreal (in comparison to Toronto or Vancouver) has employed inadequate definitions and research methods. A wider selection of indicators such as evenness of group distribution, exposure to other ethnicities, concentration, clustering, isolation, and degree of mix of groups provide for a more accurate rendering of Montreal’s ethnic settlement patterns. From this starting point, the significance of Montreal’s high rate of poverty and the uneven distributed of poverty across the city can be more fully assessed, toward better informed policy responses to poverty and housing barriers faced by immigrants.