Social Exclusion And Family Experiences Of Recent Immigrants To Canada

Social Exclusion as the Genesis of Immigrant Woes in Canada
Student Name
Institutional Affiliation
Canadian population is comprised of a large number of immigrants. The Immigrants tend to in better health than the native population because of the rigour in carrying out the selection process for immigration. Only healthy applicants get Canadian Citizenship. However, studies show that with the long match of time, the health of those immigrants and their families deteriorate significantly. Social exclusion causes the declining health of immigrants. This paper is therefore aimed at explaining how social exclusion is a determinant on the health and wellbeing of immigrants and their families in Canada. The paper will further try to discuss on the various struggles that immigrants to Canada undergo as they try to find a home away from home, and provide a few examples of other determinants that affect immigrants to Canada other than social exclusion.
Social determinants of health, as defined by Chapman (2010) encompass the conditions in which a person is born, grows, stays, works, and becomes old, and which give direction to their health status. For instance, people born in areas with a lot of smokers and cigarette producing companies are likely to grow and develop lung diseases from the harmful smoke they inhale on a daily basis. The World Health Organization formed the Commission on Social Determinants of Health (CSDH) in 2005 to collect evidence on measures to be taken to ensure Global Health equity. Examples of measures by CSDH is the provision of Cancer and Tuberculosis equipment to third world countries in an effort to enhance access to medical care by all. CSDH hypothesise social determinants of health concerning a recent consideration made by the social medical literature which views social determinant as a community role, and a factor affecting the health status of an individual. CSDH concludes that the poor condition of people and the social gradient existing in a county or community are caused by immediate and visible traits in the lives of the people. Alluding to CSDHs finding, the apparent differences in Canadian immigrants and the natives range from financial endowment whereby most immigrants are destitute job seekers to social variations in race, colour and language which leads to sidelining by society and suffering from the immigrants on the hands of the natives. Therefore, Social exclusion of immigrants to Canada forms the main point of discussion for this paper.
Social Exclusion and Health Outcomes
The detachment of immigrants from engaging in social institutions has been instrumental in deteriorating their health and wellbeing. Social isolation, psychological isolation and Economic segregating have been mention by Oxman‐Martinez et al. (2012) as agents of deteriorating healthcare and welfare of immigrants to Canada. Social isolation of immigrants takes the form of immigrants being offered accommodation in isolated and marginalized areas where only non-Canadian born citizens stay. In Canada, Immigrants are secluded from society, and have to live on their own backyards. The immigrant communities are underdeveloped, with poor garbage collection sites, poor housing, and poor sanitation. Poor communities and p...