Highly Educated Immigrant Workers' Perspectives of Occupational Health and Safety and Work Conditions That Challenge Work Safety

Janki Shankar*, Daniel Lai, Shu-Ping Chen, Tanvir C Turin, Shawn Joseph, Ellen Mi

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

    8 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    This study explored the perspectives of new immigrant workers regarding occupational health and safety and workplace conditions that increase workers' vulnerability to sustaining injury or illness. Using an interpretive research approach and semi-structured qualitative interviews, 42 new immigrant workers from a range of industries operating in two cities in a province in Canada were interviewed. Seventy-nine percent of the workers were highly qualified. A constant comparative approach was used to identify key themes across the workers' experiences. The findings revealed that new immigrant workers have an incomplete understanding of occupational health and safety. In many workplaces, poor job training, little worker support, lack of power in the workplace, and a poor workplace safety culture make it difficult for workers to acquire occupational health and safety information and to implement safe work practices. This study proposes workplace policies and practices that will improve worker occupational health and safety awareness and make workplaces safer for new immigrant workers.

    Original languageEnglish
    Article number8757
    Number of pages18
    JournalInternational Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
    Volume19
    Issue number14
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 19 Jul 2022

    Scopus Subject Areas

    • Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
    • Pollution
    • Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis

    User-Defined Keywords

    • practice
    • workplace challenges
    • highly qualified
    • new immigrant workers
    • occupational health and safety
    • policy

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