Abstract
The growth in immigrant populations demands an understandign of determinants of their health, including occupational health. The study reported here involved a survey of a non-probability non-clinical sample of immigrants. The results indicate that length of stay, a proxy for acculturation, had no relationship to injury, but working in a language other than English and professing Buddhism did; thus, lack of congruence between individual level culture and workplace culture affects rates of injury. The conclusion is that looking for individual level explanations of differences in workplace injury will do little to advance the field of occupational health promotion.
Résumé
La croissance dans les populations d’immigrants exige une compréhension des déterminants de leur santé, y compris la santé au travail. La présente étude implique une enquête auprès d’un échantillon non probabiliste et non clinique d’immigrants. Les résultats indiquent que la longueur du séjour, un indicateur de l’acculturation, n’avait aucun rapport avec les accidents de travail. Par contre, le fait de travailler dans une langue autre que l’anglais et la pratique du bouddhisme constituaient des facteurs déterminants. Le manque de congruence entre la culture individuelle et la culture du milieu de travail affecte donc le taux d’accidents. On peut conclure qu’il ne serait pas profitable de chercher des explications pour les différences dans les taux d’accidents en milieu de travail au niveau de l’individu car l’étude ne ferait guère avancer le domaine de la promotion de santé au travail.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
AFL-CIO (1999). Women workers need OSHA’s ergonomics standard. Retrieved July 20, 1999 from http://www.aflcio.org/safety/ergowomen.htm.
Alberta Career Development and Employment (1991). Immigration to Alberta: Decade in review. Edmonton, AB: The author.
Alberta Labour (1995). Lost-time claims and claim rates: An annual statistical summary of occupational injury and disease in Alberta. Edmonton, AB: The author.
Alberta Occupational Health and Safety (1990). Lost-time claims and claim rates, 1989 summary. Edmonton, AB: The author.
Alexander, D. L. (1989). Chronic lead exposure: A problem for minority workers. American Association of Occupational Health Nursing Journal, 37(3), 105–108.
Baker, C. C. (1987). Ethnic differences in accident rates at work. British Journal of Industrial Medicine, 44(3), 206–211.
Berry, J. W. (1990). Acculturation and adaptation: A general framework. In W. H. Holtzman & T. H. Bornemann (Eds.), Mental health of immigrants and refugees (pp. 90–102). Austin, TX: The University of Texas.
Biddle, E. A. & Blanciforti, L. A. (1999). Impact of a changing U.S. workforce on the occupational injury and illness experience. American Journal of Industrial Medicine, Supplement 1 (Sept.), 7–10.
Bolaria, B. S. (1988). The health effects of powerlessness: Women and racial minority immigrant workers. In B. Singh Bolaria & H. D. Dickinson (Eds.), Sociology of health care in Canada (pp. 439–459). Toronto, ON: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
Bollini, P. & Siem, H. (1995). No real progress towards equity: Health of migrants and ethnic minorities on the eve of the year 2000. Social Science and Medicine, 41(6), 819–828.
Corvalan, C. F., Driscoll, T. R. & Harrison, J. E. (1994). Role of migrant factors in work-related fatalities in Australia. Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health, 20(5), 364–370.
Davis, M. & Rowland, A. (1983). Problems faced by minority workers. In B. S. Levy & D. H. Wegman (Eds.), Occupational health: Recognizing and preventing work-related disease (pp. 417–430). Boston, MA: Little, Brown & Co.
Douglas, M. & Wildavsky, A. (1982). Risk and culture. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Drummond, N. & Lee, M. (1981). Working paper on immigrant women in the workplace. Toronto, ON: The Health Advocacy Unit, Social Environment Group.
Dunn, J. R. & Dyck, I. (2000). Social determinants of health in Canada’s immigrant population: Results from the National Population Health Survey. Social Science and Medicine, 51(11), 1573–1593.
Dyck, I. (1992). Managing chronic illness: An immigrant women’s acquisition and use of health care knowledge. The American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 46(8), 696–705.
Eakin, J. M. & MacEachern, E. (1998). Health and the social relations of work: A study of the health-related experiences of employees in small workplaces. Sociology of Health and Illness, 20(6), 896–914.
Friedman-Jimenez, G. (1989). Occupational disease among minority workers: A common and preventable public health problem. American Association of Occupational Health Nursing Journal, 37(2), 64–70.
Gannagé, C. M. (1999). The health and safety concerns of immigrant women workers in the Toronto sportswear industry. International Journal of Health Services, 29(2), 409–429.
Hamm, D. & Segall, M. (1992). Workplace health and safety for immigrant workers. At the Centre, 15(April), 16–18.
Health Canada (1998). Taking action on population health: A position paper for Health Promotion and Programs Branch Staff. Ottawa, ON: Population Health Development Division, Population Health Directorate, Health Promotion and Programs Branch, Health Canada.
Health Canada (2002). What determines health? Retrieved February 10, 2002 from http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hppb/phdd/determinants/index.html.
Johansson, A. & Salminen, S. (1999). A minority with few occupational accidents: The case of Swedish-speaking Finns. American Journal of Industrial Medicine, Supplement 1 (Sept.), 37–38.
King, G. & Williams, D. R. (1995). Race and health: A multidimensional approach to African-American health. In B. C. Amick, S. Levine, A. R. Tarlov & D. C. Walsh (Eds.), Society and health (pp. 93–130). New York: Oxford University Press.
Kirschenbaum, A., Oigenblick, L. & Goldberg, A. I. (2000). Well being, work environment and work accidents. Social Science and Medicine, 50(5), 631–639.
Kleinhesselink, R. & Rosa, E. (1991). Cognitive representation of risk perceptions: A comparison of Japan and the United States. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 22(1), 11–28.
Knocke, W. & Ng, R. (1999). Women’s organizing and immigration: Comparing the Canadian and Swedish experiences. In L. Briskin & M. Eliasson (Eds.), Women’s organizing and public policy in Canada and Sweden (pp. 87–116). Montreal, QC: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Lee, G. & Wrench, J. (1980). ‘Accident-prone immigrants’: An assumption challenged. Sociology, 14(4), 551–566.
Leigh, J. P., Markowitz, S. B., Fahs, M., Shin, C. & Landrigan, P. J. (1997). Occupational injury and illness in the United States. Estimates of costs, morbidity, and mortality. Archives of Internal Medicine, 157(14), 1557–1568.
Lorber, J. (1994). Paradoxes of gender. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Mason, K. (1976). Visible accident rates—an alternative approach to the exposure problem. Journal of Occupational Accidents, 1, 135–147.
Maurice, P., Lavoie, M., Chapdelaine, A. & Bonneau, H. B. (1997). Safety and safety promotion: Conceptual and operational aspects. Chronic Diseases in Canada, 18(4), 179–186.
Morris, L.D. (1989). Minorities, jobs, and health: An unmet promise. American Association of Occupational Health Nurses Journal, 37(2), 53–55.
Nazroo, J.Y. (1998). Genetic, cultural or socio-economic vulnerability? Explaining ethnic inequalities in health. Sociology of Health and Illness, 20(5), 710–730.
Neysmith, S. M. & Aronson, J. (1997). Working conditions in home care: Negotiating race and class boundaries in gendered work. International Journal of Health Services, 27(3), 479–499.
Peek-Asa, C., Erickson, R. & Kraus, J. F. (1999). Traumatic occupational fatalities in the retail industry, United States 1992–1996. American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 35(2), 186–191.
Robinson, J. C. (1984). Racial inequality and the probability of occupation-related injury or illness. Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly. Health and Society, 62(4), 567–590.
Robinson, J. C. (1989). Trends in racial inequality and exposure to work-related hazards, 1968–1986. American Journal of Occupational Health Nursing, 37(2), 56–63.
Stewart, P. A. & Stewart, W. F. (1995). An international effort to improve methods of data collection and exposure assessment for community-based case-control studies of occupational disease. International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health, 1(1), 37–38.
Storer, D. & Papadopoulos, G. (1979). Some dimensions of the occupational health and safety situation of migrant workers in Australia. Proceedings of the International Symposium on Safety and Health of Migrant Workers, Cavtat-Dubrovnik (World Health Organization, Occupational Safety and Health Series No. 41).
Taler, Y. (1998). Integration into work of unemployed new immigrant women from single parent families. International Journal of Rehabilitation Research, 21(2), 195–209.
Thurston, W. E. & McGrath, A. (1993). “With two pennies in my pocket, I just feel not so helpless”: A report on the mental and occupational health promotion needs of immigrants in Calgary. Calgary, AB: University of Calgary, Department of Community Health Sciences.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Thurston, W., Verhoef, M. Occupational injury among immigrants. Int. Migration & Integration 4, 105–123 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-003-1021-3
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-003-1021-3