Last Updated: Nov 6, 2014
IMMIGRATION AND HEALTH IN 2014; REINFORCING MARGINALIZATION
by Ritika Goel
by Ritika Goel
ABSTRACT
An estimated half million people in Canada do not have access to health insurance, and this number grows as attacks continue on refugees and other migrants. Increasingly regressive immigration policies continue to wreak havoc on the health of current and prospective migrants to Canada. Increasingly divisive rhetoric and policies which value migrants as labour above all, disproportionately impact the most marginalized amongst us. We continue to hear rhetoric about "queuejumpers" abusing our system while migrants are denied access to lifesaving treatment, some of whom have even lost their lives in the process. Join us in fighting back and demanding a fair and just society in which we provide health for all.
An estimated half million people in Canada do not have access to health insurance, and this number grows as attacks continue on refugees and other migrants. Increasingly regressive immigration policies continue to wreak havoc on the health of current and prospective migrants to Canada. Increasingly divisive rhetoric and policies which value migrants as labour above all, disproportionately impact the most marginalized amongst us. We continue to hear rhetoric about "queuejumpers" abusing our system while migrants are denied access to lifesaving treatment, some of whom have even lost their lives in the process. Join us in fighting back and demanding a fair and just society in which we provide health for all.
Ritika Goel
Health 4 All Toronto Ritika Goel is a family physician and activist in Toronto. She works with women and men experiencing homelessness as well as people with precarious status. She is a volunteer physician and board member of the Scarborough Community Volunteer Clinic for the Uninsured, and an organizer with Health for All, a migrant justice organization that believes in access to health for all people, irrespective of immigration status. She is also involved in organizing around medicare, poverty and homelessness. Ritika is a regular media contributor to the Huffington Post Canada, Healthy Debate, and on Twitter @RitikaGoelTO. Website: www.health4all.ca Twitter: @RikitaGoelTO |