Understanding the Health Transitions of Immigrants to Canada: Research Priorities

Understanding changes in the health of immigrants has been an important area of research in Canadian public health. Recent years have seen important developments, with studies moving away from what might be called ‘sick immigrant’ versus ‘healthy immigrant’ debates towards analyzing transitions and how they are influenced by a diverse set of social determinants. The release of data from all three waves of the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada has also spurred new theoretical understandings of why immigrants’ initial health advantage is lost over time, with the experience of discrimination becoming an increasingly important predictor. Three research priorities are emerging as particularly important in this area. These are the need for multilevel analyses that incorporate contextual effects, the need for comparative international studies, and the need to refine the conceptualization of race/ethnicity to take advantage of developments in social theory.