Immigrant Workers' Experiences After Work-related Injury and Illness

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For more information please contact:

  • Dr. Agnieszka Kosny, Principal Investigator
    416-927-2027 ext. 2167 akosny@iwh.on.ca

We will pay for any long distance charges. All calls and emails will be kept confidential.

Why study immigrant workers?

Every year, about 300 people in Ontario die and nearly 270,000 more file workers' compensation claims because they get injured or sick at work. A growing number of workers in Ontario are immigrants.

We want to know what happens to immigrant workers who have gotten sick or hurt on the job, as well as their experiences with service providers and community organizations that help them. We hope that this study can show us ways to improve workplace practices, health-care services, and compensation policies in order to keep workers safe and healthy, and to help immigrant workers who have suffered an injury or work-related illness.

Immigrants now make up nearly half of Toronto's population, and are very important to the Canadian workforce overall. Between 1991 and 1996 immigrant workers accounted for 70 percent of all labour force growth and are expected to account for almost all net labour force growth by 2011.

Immigrants, particularly those from racialized groups and recent immigrants (immigrants who arrived during the 1990s and 2000s), are more likely to work in precarious, low-wage jobs such as in factories, restaurants, hotels and retail stores. Many immigrants have more education and experience than their job requires, and they may have problems getting their qualifications or their previous work experience recognized by Canadian employers. Although most new immigrants can speak some English, they may not be fluent. In order to support dependents, sponsor family members or send financial aid to their country of origin, new immigrants may keep jobs even when faced with poor working conditions or injury. Those workers with high job insecurity, poor language skills, and a lack of familiarity with Canadian social programs may face particular challenges when injured at work. They may be afraid to report an injury if they think doing so will jeopardize their job; they may not know their rights; and they may have trouble accessing, understanding and navigating the compensation system.

While other research has investigated risks faced by immigrant workers, we don't know much about what happens to immigrant workers after they are injured or have gotten sick on the job. For example, how do immigrant workers manage, cope and access workplace support, workers' compensation and health-care systems?

Thus, the purpose of this study is to explore the experiences of injured immigrant workers in Toronto - a city with the highest level of immigration in Canada. The study will examine the experiences of immigrants who arrived in the 1990s and 2000s as they navigate the workers' compensation system, as well as their knowledge of and willingness to invoke workplace rights after injury. This study will provide important information about the experiences of a group of workers that represent an important and growing segment of our workforce. We hope that the study can help us find ways in which workplace practices, health-care services, and compensation policies can best serve these workers.

We want to hear about the experiences new immigrants have when they are injured or become sick at work, including:

  • knowledge of rights
  • contact and experience with workers' compensation
  • effect of the injury on family and community
  • retraining
  • health-care
  • financial consequences of the injury or illness

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How we will do the study

We will do in-depth interviews with 30 injured immigrant workers and 10 service providers. We will first interview service providers (worker advocates, health-care providers, settlement counselors, etc.) who can speak about key issues facing immigrant workers, challenges encountered after injury and potential problems and barriers with the system.

Next, working closely with worker groups, multicultural organizations, and health care providers, we will recruit two groups of injured immigrant workers: those who have not filed a workers' compensation claim and those who have. We will pay special attention to how education, ethnicity, gender, age and knowledge of English shape workers' experiences and paths.

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What our study will do

This study will:

  • provide information about immigrant workers' knowledge of their rights after a work injury
  • identify barriers to reporting injuries in the workplace and to filing compensation claims
  • examine immigrant workers' experiences with compensation and health-care systems
  • address a large gap in the current research on immigrants' labour market experiences

Given that immigrants represent the majority of Canadian labour force growth, workplaces and policy-makers must understand any special challenges these workers face in the event of a work injury. It is also important that our compensation and allied systems are well-suited to immigrant worker needs and help smooth recovery and return to work.

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Who's involved?

  • Agnieszka (Iggy) Kosny, Principal Investigator
    Iggy has a PhD in public health sciences and is an associate scientist at the Institute for Work & Health.
  • Ellen MacEachen, Co-investigator
    Ellen is an adjunct assistant professor in the department of public health sciences, faculty of medicine at the University of Toronto and a scientist at the Institute for Work & Health.
  • John Shields, Co-investigator
    John is a professor in the Department of Politics and School of Public Administration, Ryerson University and the Director of Centre of Excellence for Research on Immigration and Settlement - The Ontario Metropolis Centre (CERIS).
  • Peter Smith, Co-investigator
    Peter has a PhD from the Institute of Medical Science at the University of Toronto and a master's degree in public health from the University of New South Wales in Australia. Currently he is a scientist at the Institute for Work & Health.
  • Cynthia Humphries, Study Coordinator
    Cynthia Humphries is a project coordinator at the Institute for Work & Health. She has an MA in human kinetics.
  • Marni Lifshen, Study Coordinator
    Marni is a research associate at the Institute for Work & Health. She has an MA in social anthropology.

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Information for service providers

We would like to talk to service providers who work with immigrant communities. We want to hear your thoughts on the experiences new immigrants have when they are injured or become sick at work. If you participate in this study, you will be interviewed over the telephone or in person by a researcher from the Institute for Work & Health. When the study is finished, we will share study results with you.

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Information for workers

If you are an immigrant worker who:

  • arrived in 1990 or afterward
  • has gotten hurt or sick at (or from) work

then we would like to speak to you about your experiences.

We want to hear what you have to say about things like:

  • reporting your injury or illness to your boss or workers' compensation - did you report, why or why not?
  • knowing your rights at work
  • seeing a doctor or going to the hospital
  • how and where you got help or information about your injury or illness
  • how being hurt or sick at work has affected you, your family, and your community.

If you participate, you will be invited to attend a one-on-one interview with a researcher from the Institute for Work & Health, at a time and place that is convenient for you. We will ask general questions about your experiences after a work-related injury and illness. As a thank you, we will provide you with a gift certificate, which is yours to keep even if you withdraw from the study. With your consent, the interview will be tape recorded and then transcribed. If you like, we will also share the results of our research with you later on.

While you may not benefit directly from the study, immigrant workers may benefit as it will help us understand their needs, their experiences after an injury, and current gaps in services. We hope this study will help improve services, information, and procedures to help immigrant workers stay safe and healthy.

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Your privacy

We are an independent research institute and have no direct association with service providers, injured worker groups, employers or WSIB/workers' compensation service provision. Any service providers that we interview will be arm's length. If you are an injured worker, what you say will not affect your access to care or services, or your relationship with your employer(s).

If you participate in the study, what you say in the interview will be confidential and anonymous. Only the researchers will know who is interviewed, what is said, and the organizations being contacted for this study. You will not have to answer any questions if you don't want to, and you can leave the study at any time.

We will get your consent before recording any interviews or using information we collect from you. You can download a consent form in PDF format:

This study has been approved by the McMaster University Research Ethics Board.

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More resources

Here are some external links for more resources and information about immigration and workplace injury and illness in general:

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