Issue:
A growing number of temporary foreign workers come to work in Ontario’s agricultural industry each year, working in a relatively high risk industry in which occupational health and safety problems can be common, and may go unreported. A growing body of research in the U.S. and Canada indicates these workers face many barriers to accessing health care and insurance, including language barriers, social and physical isolation, and fear of loss of employment or forced return to their country of origin.
Objectives:
Building on current research findings, this project will develop research-based educational initiatives that describe these barriers to health care and service providers, and facilitate collaborative identification of strategies to increase these workers’ access to workers’ compensation services. The principal goal of the project is to educate health care workers and other stakeholders about these issues and to function as a catalyst to promote migrant-sensitive and appropriate care and WSIB access.
Anticipated Results:
The practical application of this project will expand provider and other stakeholder knowledge and act as a catalyst for fostering new strategies to enable migrant farm workers to access these services.
Investigators:
Janet E. McLaughlin, Jenna L. Hennebry (Wilfrid Laurier University), Donald C. Cole (University of Toronto & IWH), Michael Pysklywec (McMaster University & OHCOW), Ted Haines (McMaster University)
