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 (immi
