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Immigrants and Refugees in Toronto and Their Encounters with Healthcare: New Research Paths

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Multilingual Healthcare

Part of the book series: FOM-Edition ((INTSE))

Abstract

The challenges immigrants and especially refugees are confronted with when trying to access healthcare are reconstructed for some of the healthcare institutions in Toronto. The question guiding the overview of existing research and from a small ethnographic exploration is whether what one knows to date about medical communication is still applicable to persons who have gone through harrowing events and may not have much knowledge of the institutions in Toronto. Language and communication barriers impair the successful settlement of newcomers to Toronto. For this aim, a Functional Pragmatic approach is presented as the theory of choice because it has developed a methodology, which focuses on the relation between language and social structures. Analysing the language in (multilingual) healthcare would require careful consideration of traumatized persons in an interdisciplinary team and would be pertinent to treating newcomers and teaching less experienced healthcare providers.

For critical comments on a first draft of this article, I would like to thank Christiane Hohenstein, Magdalène Lévy-Tödter and Adrienne Chambon. I am especially grateful to the agents of institutions as well as the refugees and immigrants who were willing to grant me insight into their work and lives.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The Canadian Centre for Refugee and Immigrant Health Care in Scarborough operates totally as a volunteer clinic with about 25 medical doctors, 10 dentists and various nurses all volunteering their time and expertise. No patient is asked for proof of insurance coverage. Some supplies are donated and some special help (dieticians or specialized therapists) is covered by separate programmes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Research on Language and Culture Contact (CRLCC), Glendon College, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Jennifer Hartog

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  1. Jennifer Hartog
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. LCC – Department Angewandte Linguistik, ZHAW Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften, Winterthur, Switzerland

    Christiane Hohenstein

  2. FOM Hochschule für Oekonomie & Management, Hamburg, Germany

    Magdalène Lévy-Tödter

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Hartog, J. (2020). Immigrants and Refugees in Toronto and Their Encounters with Healthcare: New Research Paths. In: Hohenstein, C., Lévy-Tödter, M. (eds) Multilingual Healthcare. FOM-Edition(). Springer Gabler, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-27120-6_8

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