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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.

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Thurston, W., Verhoef, M. Occupational injury among immigrants. Int. Migration & Integration 4, 105–123 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-003-1021-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-003-1021-3

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