Immigration status and work disability duration

Differences in disability duration: Recent and established immigrants compared to Canadian-born injured workers, BC, 1995-2012

In brief

• Immigrant workers, particularly recent immigrants who may have lower English proficiency and a lack of familiarity with Canadian social programs, face particular challenges after a work injury.
• We compared disability durations for compensated work injuries in BC for recent immigrants (less than 10 years in Canada), established immigrants (more than 10 years in Canada), and Canadian-born workers, by linking accepted workers’ compensation claims in BC to permanent resident data from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.
• Both recent and established immigrants had longer work disability durations than Canadian-born workers, after adjusting for demographic and occupational characteristics.
• The relationship between immigration status and disability duration was greater for younger immigrant workers than for older immigrant workers and for immigrant men than for immigrant women.

Next steps

• We are continuing to study differences in and the determinants of work disability experiences and longer-term health outcomes among immigrant workers compared to Canadian-born workers, employing data from a novel linkage of administrative data from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada to injury claims data from WorkSafeBC and health care data from the BC Ministry of Health.
• Evidence of different experiences and of determinants of these differences will provide inputs for discussions and ultimately decisions by policy-makers, employers and regulators/insurers to reduce barriers and health inequities, and improve outcomes for all workers, including immigrants as potentially more vulnerable and precarious workers.

Related publications