Page - 411 - in VULNERABLE - The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19

411Migrant Health in a Time of Pandemic: Fallacies of Us-Versus-Them the problem is the acute power imbalance between many migrant workers and their employers. Migrants with precarious legal status are often fearful of deportation, and they depend heavily on employ- ers to help them maintain and renew their immigration authoriza- tion.13 Even for migrants whose legal status is more secure, many find themselves trapped in their existing jobs because the prospects of obtaining alternative employment are hampered by their limited official language proficiency and formal education.14 Such a power differential, coupled with the necessity to make ends meet, exerts con- siderable pressure on migrants to accept unsafe working conditions, including the need to keep working while ill, and it deters migrants from speaking out against employers’ non-compliance with public health directives.15 Employment-related risk factors aside, migrants’ vulnerability to contracting COVID-19 is exacerbated by their relative economic insecurity. Migrants, especially those who have been in the country for less than five years, are much more likely than their Canadian- born counterparts to live in poverty.16 In 2010, nearly one in three newcomers to Canada struggled with low income.17 Such financial insecurity causes many migrants to resort to living in overcrowded, substandard housing, which is known to facilitate the transmission of pathogens.18 One refugee shelter in Toronto, for example, was home to a COVID-19 outbreak involving 88 of its residents.19 Additionally, low income puts migrants in peril of experiencing malnutrition and 13. Sarah Marsden, “Silence Means Yes Here in Canada: Precarious Migrants, Work and the Law” (2014) 18 CLELJ 1. 14. Mosleh, supra note 9. 15. Max Martin, “Outbreak Puts Migrant Farm Workers in Spotlight”, Brantford Expositor (29 April 2020) A5; Lorian Hardcastle, “COVID-19 Lays Bare Poor Conditions in Long-Term Care Homes”, Edmonton Journal (24 April 2020), online: <edmontonjournal.com/opinion/columnists/opinion-covid-19-lays-bare-poor- conditions-in-long-term-care-homes/>. 16. Garnett Picot & Feng Hou, “Immigration, Poverty and Income Inequality in Canada” in David A Green, W Craig Riddell & France St-Hilaire, eds, Income Inequality:  The  Canadian  Story, (Montreal: Institute for Research on Public Policy, 2016) 175. 17. Ibid. 18. Ian Wanyeki et al, “Dwellings, Crowding, and Tuberculosis in Montreal” (2006) 63:2 Social Science & Medicine 501. 19. Liam Casey, “COVID-19 Outbreak Surges Among Homeless in Toronto with 135 Cases”, CTV News (25 April 2020), online: <toronto.ctvnews.ca/covid-19-out- break-surges-among-homeless-in-toronto-with-135-cases-1.4911670?cache=esoj ovbbggirjp>.