Article by Aimée-Angélique Bouka and Yolande Bouka. Policy Options.
May 19, 2020.
The low-paid and precarious positions in industries that are considered essential during the COVID-19 pandemic (sanitation, health care, and those in the food supply chain) are filled with women, recent immigrants, and racialized Canadians. Many of these workplaces are notoriously plagued with exploitative labour practices that, in many ways, contributed to the spread of the virus in the first place. Recent immigrants and racialized Canadians, notably Filipinos and Sudanese Dinka, who work in these industries, for example, meat-packing plants in Brooks, High River and Balzac, Alberta, are at great risk of negative health outcomes during this pandemic.
And, yet, we do not collect the necessary data in Canada on the social determinants of health for racialized minorities. Canada needs to gather COVID-19 related data on race and immigration to better address the needs of vulnerable communities that also tend to work in essential sectors.
See more