The Underutilization of International Medical Graduates in Ontario and Canada: A Selective Review of the Existing Literature on the Experiences of International Medical Graduates in the Context of Canadian Health Care Policies

This paper will examine the phenomenon of the underutilization of IMGs in Canada and Ontario. Using the existing literature selectively as it relates to the key research questions, it will be argued that health policy initiatives have contributed in diverse ways to the underutilization of IMGs in the health care system, with significant negative impact upon the life experiences of the IMGs and their families. As will be seen, we need to consider how these health policies have been influenced by other factors – such as systemic discrimination, an issue whose importance is suggested in some of the scholarly literature on this topic – that have contributed to this problem as well as to its resistance to policy remediation.