Health care for all: Undocumented migrants and the COVID-19 pandemic in Alberta, Canada—A scoping review
Abstract
What can be learned about the healthcare access of undocumented workers? How can health equity be advanced through sensitivity to the process of precaritization and the precarities informing their lives? Thailand and Spain are the only countries in the world that offer the same healthcare access to undocumented migrants as citizens. Most European countries only offer emergency services: France, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and Switzerland allow undocumented migrants to access similar services to citizens if they meet conditions (proof of identity; length of residence in the country). European cities such as Ghent, Frankfurt, and Dusseldorf, offer barrier-free healthcare. Throughout the USA, Federally Qualified Health Centers support care to the uninsured regardless of immigration status. In Canada, Ontario and Quebec, provide a base level of healthcare access to undocumented migrants, and a small number of stand-alone community-based clinics offer additional care and specialized services. To promote healthcare for undocumented migrants in Alberta, barrier-free access to vaccination, COVID-19 treatment, and proof of vaccinations are essential, but an equity lens to healthcare service— informed by analytic understanding and robust approach to precaritization as a social determinant, is most needed.
Notes
Open access: No
Location: Alberta broadly (not otherwise specified)
Community organizations: n/a
Future research / gaps identified:
1) Evaluate and modify labour and economic policies in Alberta that affect undocumented migrants, such that these health disparities are decreased.
2) Assess different models of healthcare access for undocumented workers that are being used across Canada and Europe.
Key recommendations:
1) Eliminate waiting periods for provincial insurance coverage and provide universal healthcare coverage for all residents of Canada regardless of status.
2) Expand barrier-free access to health care services including access to vaccination, COVID-19 treatment, and proof of vaccinations
3) Support community-based migrant-responsive healthcare
4) Grant temporary foreign workers permanent residency status upon arrival.
Key populations: Undocumented migrants in Alberta
Key findings:
83 articles were included in the scoping review, where 5 main categories of consideration emerged:
1) Precarity in employment, status, and life in general strongly affects the health and social outcomes of undocumented migrants.
2) TFWs often worked in essential jobs during the pandemic, and contributed to: a) supplying needed human resources for various sectors, b) providing essential services, c) enhancing the Canadian economy, d) increasing discourse on migration, citizenship and development.
3) Undocumented migrants in Alberta have some of the poorest health outcomes in the province.
4) COVID-19 exposed and exacerbated the health disparities that undocumented workers in Alberta face.
5) Across Canada and in multiple European countries, different systems of healthcare access/exclusion for undocumented migrant workers are currently in place.
Integration timeline: Not defined