Immigration, Labour Policies linked to COVID Death
Immigration, Labour Policies linked to COVID Death
Labour and health advocates say the reason why COVID has claimed immigrants’ lives at disproportionate rates has to do with the precarious working conditions most of these people are funneled into by Canada’s immigration policies, which in turn are informed by institutionalized racism.
By Fernando Arce
New Canadian Media
Labour and health advocates are worried governments are ignoring the evidence linking immigration and labour policies together as determinants of health for newcomers. These worries come on the back of a study that shows that immigrants have died in greater numbers than the rest of the population in the first wave.
The Statistics Canada study showed that from early March to July 4, 2020, 8,323 deaths were directly attributable to COVID-19. Out of those, 25 per cent were immigrants who landed in Canada between 1952 and 2018, even though they made up 22 per cent of the total Canadian population. This was particularly the case for those younger than 65: a group that makes up 20 per cent of the total population but which accounted for 30 per cent of all deaths during those months.
“The disproportionate death burden among immigrants was also high among males, as well as in Ontario, Quebec and, particularly, British Columbia, where immigrants comprise 28 per cent of the population but represented 41 per cent of the COVID-19 deaths,” reads a summary of the report released on June 9.
Comments (0)