Canada's "Healthy Immigrant Effect"

I have had a number of refugee friends complain to me about the U.S. health care system. These complaints usually coincide with them coming to the end of their initial medicaid benefits and having to start paying for their own health insurance. Many have friends or relative in Canada which is sometimes thought of as magical land of free health care. So, it is with them in mind that I post the following - a very, very intriguing article about why moving to Canada can be hazardous to you health. Enjoy!

Why Canada is hazardous to their health: "Since the 1990s a growing body of data has suggested that most newcomers arrive in Canada healthier than the native-born population, only to have that advantage erode over time. New immigrants tend to live longer than the Canadian-born population, but within a decade of resettlement, their mortality rates creep up, as do their rates of chronic disease. In looking at almost a decade of data in its biannual National Population Health Survey, Statistics Canada also found immigrants were almost twice as likely as native-born Canadians to report feeling unwell. Recent non-European immigrants - the largest proportion of newcomers we currently admit - were the most likely to report their health declining from good or excellent to fair or poor."

A deaf refugee from Bhutan impresses in Canada with her enthusiasm | Bhutan News Service

Here's an encouraging little story of a deaf Bhutanese refugee who is overcoming tremendous obstacles.

A deaf refugee from Bhutan impresses in Canada with her enthusiasm | Bhutan News Service: "“I believe deaf refugees can do anything hearing people do, except hear,” she says through a sign language interpreter in her Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada classroom at St. Joseph’s Adult School in Ottawa. Clearly excited about being interviewed by UNHCR, she’s exuberant and outgoing, her face only turning sombre when she recalls refugee friends she left behind in the Beldangi camp in eastern Nepal."