Introduction Immigrants are overrepresented in low prestige and precarious employment positions that may expose them disproportionally to work-related injury and illness but also longer work disability durations.

Objective To investigate differences in disability duration among immigrants (categorized as economic, family or refugees/other classification upon arrival to Canada) compared to Canadian-born workers with a work-related injury in British Columbia.

Methods Immigrants and Canadian-born workers were identified from linked workers’ compensation claims and immigration records with back strain, connective tissue, concussion and fracture injuries requiring at least one day of work disability between 2009 to 2015. Quantile regression investigated the relationship between immigration classification and predicted disability days (defined as time on claim within one year of injury) at the 25th, 50th and 75th percentile of the distribution.

Results With a few exceptions, immigrants experienced greater predicted disability days compared to Canadian-born workers within the same injury cohort. The largest differences were observed for family and refugee/other immigrant classification workers, and in particular for women within these classifications compared to Canadian-born workers. For example, at the 75th percentile of the distribution of disability days, we observed a difference of 47.9 days longer for refugee/other women in the concussion cohort and a difference of 41.6 days longer for family classification women in the fracture cohort. Economic immigrants had comparable disability days with Canadian-born workers, especially in the connective tissue and back strain injury cohorts at the 25th and 50th percentiles of the distribution.

Conclusion Immigrant workers’ longer disability durations may be a result of more severe injuries, or challenges navigating the workers’ compensation system with delays in seeking disability benefits and rehabilitation services. Differences by immigrant classification speaks to vulnerabilities or inequities upon arrival in Canada that persist upon entry to the workforce and warrant further investigation for early mitigation strategies.