Page - 417 - in VULNERABLE - The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19

417Migrant Health in a Time of Pandemic: Fallacies of Us-Versus-Them more. They perform crucial tasks that keep our society functioning, and they follow the same laws as we do, including the various lib- erty-constraining public health orders now imposed. For all intents and purposes—and even more so in times of international border closures—Canada is their home. Treating them differently in our responses to the pandemic, notwithstanding their same if not greater risk of ill health and financial hardship, is arguably arbitrary and runs counter to the value of equality that permeates our legal system.41 Moreover, as seen, migrants make important contributions to society that render our health care and social programs possible. They are integral to all sectors of our economy, including health and social care provision, and they pay into these government programs through taxes and payroll deductions. Excluding migrants from health and social care, therefore, violates the principle of reciprocity: people are prima facie entitled to reap what they sow.42 From a policy standpoint, leaving migrants out of government health care and income support programs during the pandemic also puts public health at risk. Past experience demonstrates that when diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases are delayed, the like- lihood of the diseases spreading in the community rises.43 It is rea- sonable to expect the same possibility to ensue when migrants with COVID-19 are forced to put off seeking medical attention because they lack public health care coverage or they are afraid of reveal- ing themselves to the authorities following service access. What is more, the concern about community transmission is potentially made worse by the government’s exclusion of migrants from income assis- tance. Doing so puts pressure on migrants to work even when feeling unwell, which increases their risk of being exposed to the virus and exposing others to the virus. Migrants in Canada have had to shoulder a disproportionate burden of the pandemic’s negative effects as a result of their living and working environments. Denying migrants health care coverage and income supports adds insults to injury and is both unprincipled and irrational. To protect the health of migrants and the general public, at 41. See generally The Honorable Claire L’Heureux-Dubé, “It Takes a Vision: The Constitutionalization of Equality in Canada” (2002) 14 Yale JL & Feminism 363. 42. John Rawls, A  Theory  of  Justice, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971). 43. See generally Patrick J Glen, “Health Care and the Illegal Immigrant” (2012) 23 Health Matrix 197 at 225.