Access to Health Care for Precarious Immigration Status Persons: Human First, Status Later

This research paper seeks to understand the relationship between an individual’s legal status and their access to Canada’s healthcare system. The level of access of non-citizens to health care in Canada is determined by an individual’s immigration status. Refugees, asylum seekers, temporary foreign workers, and permanent residents are four classes of immigrants that have access to specific health care policies depending on their legal status. Refugees and asylum seekers are eligible under the federal government’s Interim Federal Health Care Program (IFHP) which provides them with access – although limited – to healthcare services in Canada. Conversely, there is not a federal or provincial health care policy that legally provides undocumented migrants with a right to access healthcare without any repercussions. The analysis of policies will reveal the current discourse surrounding citizenship status, legality, and human rights, in addition to the role of the state in exercising power over certain bodies.