Wednesday 28 June 2017
Tabaret Hall at the University of Ottawa was the scene of a seminar to address issues affecting the health of new immigrants and refugees, under the theme: “Becoming Canadian and Staying Healthy”. Organised by the Loyer-DaSilva Research Chair in the School of Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences, as part of Ottawa’s Welcoming Ottawa Week (WOW), the event featured a documentary: Becoming American”, about a family of Mexican immigrants in the US. The event was opened with greetings from Prof Wendy Sword, Director & Associate Dean of the School of Nursing”, followed by an expert panel consisting of Professor Josephine Etowa, Research Chair in Public Health Nursing, University of Ottawa; Dr. Salma Debs-Ivall, Project Manager, Knowledge and Innovation, Ottawa Hospital; and David Majok, Director Newcomer Information Centre, YMCA Ottawa. Among the attendees was Marie Loyer-DaSilva, whose family had endowed the Research Chair in Public Health Nursing at the University.
Dr. Debs-Ivall spoke of her research on the “healthy immigrant effect”, which showed that, on arrival in Canada, new immigrants were in better health than Canadian-born persons; they however lose this advantage within two years of their arrival, as a result of the intersection of other social determinants of health in their lives, especially social capital. Professor Etowa spoke of her own research with immigrant women and the challenges they face in accessing healthy affordable food. David Majok spoke of the challenges of adaptation for newcomers to Canada, including social isolation and racism; he called for collaboration between researchers and front-line settlement workers, to ensure that the former use current and relevant data about the immigrant experience in their investigations. Participants joined in the conversation, recounting their own lived experiences; the general sense was that more needs to be done to enact policies and strategies to improve immigrant access to health care.
Photo copyright Black Ottawa Scene