Page - 417 - in VULNERABLE - The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
Image of the Page - 417 -
Text of the Page - 417 -
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.
VULNERABLE
The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Title
- VULNERABLE
- Subtitle
- The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Authors
- Vanessa MacDonnell
- Jane Philpott
- Sophie Thériault
- Sridhar Venkatapuram
- Publisher
- Ottawa Press
- Date
- 2020
- Language
- English
- License
- CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
- ISBN
- 9780776636429
- Size
- 15.2 x 22.8 cm
- Pages
- 648
- Categories
- Coronavirus
- International